The Force Binds Love Together
by sengaeriel
Summary: This story takes place ten years after the events of The Truce at Bakura, reuniting Luke and Gaeriel, and the blooming romance between them as Luke saves Gaeriel's life. This story was once posted to RASSM. It was written in 1994-1995.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Connections Through the Force

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master and teacher at the Jedi Academy, was sleeping in his quarters in the Great Temple on Yavin 4. He began tossing and turning in his bed. Artoo - Detoo just stood in the corner of the quarters. The blue astromech droid knew Luke regularly tossed and turned in his sleep and decided to ignore the sleeping Jedi. All of the sudden, Luke sat up quickly in his bed. Artoo thought that was unusual, especially since Luke was soaking wet. Artoo trilled a question to his master, as if he was truly worried about him.

"I'm okay, Artoo. I just had another one of my visions. Keep yourself plugged into the charger," Luke said to the silhouette of the droid.

See - Threepio ran into the room. Okay, he didn't exactly run, but he tried his best to run. "What is it, Artoo?" Threepio asked.

"I'm fine, Threepio. Would you two stop worrying about me? It's not like some ancient Dark Lord of the Sith is trying to destroy me. I just had a dream, that's all," Luke said.

Threepio looked at Artoo. Neither of them responded.

"I need to get some fresh air. Is that okay with the two of you?" Luke said.

"Certainly, Master Luke. Did you want some water or anything to..." Threepio said, being interrupted by Luke.

"No. I'll get something to drink myself. Please, I need to be alone for awhile." Luke got up, grabbed a robe sitting over the back of a chair, and put in on. He attached his lightsaber to the robe, then walked out of the room.

The young Jedi Master walked to the large kitchen and grabbed some herbal tea, poured it into a mug, and proceeded to the top of the temple.

He stepped out of the turbolift, into the darkness of the middle of the night. Luke walked to the edge, facing away from the gas giant of Yavin, looking at the stars. He spotted the stars of the systems he had visited: Dathomir, Coruscant, Endor, Hoth, and Tatooine to name a few. But one star system struck his eyes like a lightning bolt - Bakura.

My dream, he thought, while staring at Bakura. Gaeriel was in that dream, and she was in danger.

There was a name he hadn't thought about in over a decade - Gaeriel Captison. The only woman that electrified his force senses without even seeing her. He reached out through the Force to see if he could sense her, even though she was very far away.

He felt her tossing in her sleep, having a nightmare about a trichoid larva swallowing her whole. He then sensed her wake up and walk toward a window. She looked out the window, staring at some star system she had never visited. Luke saw through her eyes what star system Gaeriel was looking at - Yavin. Yavin? He wanted to feel her thoughts - she was thinking of the past, the talks they had together. Especially that kiss the two of them shared aboard the _Millennium Falcon_. But she had no idea what star system she was staring at. Gaeriel decided to return to bed. Luke let go of using the Force on her and let her fall asleep.

He recalled the events of the dream, the danger that Gaeriel was in. Closing his eyes, he could see the dream replay itself in his mind. It was a dark, large room, with many echoes emanating from the darkness. Luke could feel Gaeriel's presence and the fear for her life. He knew she was not alone, but could not sense the other person. As he began to walk towards the center of the room, he felt death, he smelled the fear of the murdered victim. He pulled a light from his belt and turned it on. The victim laid in pieces - head and limbs severed from the body, laying exactly one meter from where they should be attached to the body. Not a drop of blood was on the concrete floor. Luke looked closer at the body and noticed something very strange - the limbs and head had been cauterized, black where the cuts were made. Luke knew of only one weapon that could produce that result - a lightsaber, he thought, as he grabbed his lightsaber with a tighter grip. He heard screams - Gaeriel's screams emanating from a corner. He focused the light towards that corner and froze.

No, stop it, Luke, he said to himself. The future is always in motion, remember? It was only a dream, he thought.

Luke felt a presence - not Gaeriel's - but someone who was strong in the Force. He noticed the spirit approach him with tranquillity and sit on the temple's ledge. "Luke, it's time," the spirit said.

"Time for what, father?" he asked as he sat next to the spirit of Anakin Skywalker.

"To pass on the family name, " Anakin answered.

"Leia's passing on the family heritage," Luke said somberly.

"Not the Skywalker name, Luke. Only you can pass on the name of Skywalker. This woman you are thinking of is the one who will be the mother of your children. You have very strong feelings for this woman, although you have not seen her in a long time."

"I don't have time for romance. I'm going to Tatooine to see if Obi-Wan left any Jedi relicts at his homestead. Besides, Gaeriel once had objections to anyone who was strong in the Force. She said she would never leave Bakura ever again."

"Never is a long time, Luke. She will be contacting you about the danger she is in. You need to help her and protect her."

"But what if I do the same thing that you did to mother?"

"You won't. You have surpassed that level in your life years ago. You have overcome obstacles that I could not cross. Don't let her go away this time." Anakin began to disappear.

"Father?" Too late, he already disappeared. Luke was wondering if he was ever going to get one of those father - son talks that his friends always talked about when he was younger. He never had one - until now. But this talk was so incomplete, he thought. They never talked about sex.

Luke just stood in the dark, emptiness of the night. The warmth of the star in the Yavin System could be felt on Luke's face. How long have I been out here, he thought. I'd better get back to my quarters before Threepio begins to worry. And off the young Jedi Master went.

Senator Gaeriel Captison woke up from a nightmare about a trichoid larva. She remembered when she heard about the larvae - after she shared a meal with Luke Skywalker. Gaeri thought about him while walking to the window in her room.

She pressed her face against the glass to take a better look at the stars. She knew where Coruscant was - she was there during Imperial rule studying at Imperial Center. But the star system she was staring at intrigued her. She didn't know why - she didn't even know what star system it was. Staring at it got her thinking about that kiss she shared with Luke on board the _Millennium Falcon_. She reminded herself that she had an early Senate meeting tomorrow and returned to her oval repulsor bed and fell asleep.

Several hours later, Gaeriel woke up earlier than she needed to. It wasn't a nightmare that woke her up, but sheer curiosity of what that star system she was looking at last night. Why was I thinking about Jedi Luke Skywalker while staring at that system? She had to ask Eppie.

Gaeriel had been friends with Eppie Belden all of her life - after all, Eppie was approaching 150. Without Luke Skywalker's intervention, Eppie would not be alive - she would still be that wizened old woman who's mind washed out to sea years ago.

Gaeri jumped out of bed, got dressed without taking a shower, and began to walk out of the mansion, trying not to wake anyone up.

"Gaeriel?" her Aunt Tiree asked.

Gaeriel jumped back, startled. "You scared me," she said breathing heavily.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to see Eppie. It's very important."

Gaeriel ran out the front door. Her airspeeder was sitting in the driveway. It was still dark outside, but she needed to talk to Eppie and get this settled. She drove so fast through Salis D'aar that she thought she was going to get a speeding ticket. Finally, she reached Eppie's apartment, jumped out of the speeder, and ran to Eppie's door.

Eppie was waiting with the front door open, expecting Gaeri's arrival. Eppie always knew when Gaeri was coming over - Luke did say that Eppie had untrained talents in the Force of her own. "What's wrong, Gaeri," Eppie asked.

Gaeriel was out of breath. "When I woke up last night from a nightmare, I walked up to my window to stare at the stars. I was intrigued by one certain star that I couldn't stop staring at it," she said.

"And you want to know why."

"Yes."

Eppie took Gaeriel to her office where her computer was located. "Okay, what position does your window face and at what time were you looking at this star?"

Gaeriel sat down on the brand new repulsor chair Eppie put in the office specifically for Gaeriel's visits. "It was around midnight, and my window faces northwest."

The new voice-activated computer that Eppie developed several years ago went into action with Gaeriel's time and direction. The computer then put a star chart onto the screen and said, "Here is the chart you asked for, Gaeri." in a masculine voice.

"That's it!" Gaeriel said as she jumped out of her seat and touched the star on the screen.

"Calm down, girl."

"What's is its name?" She sat back down in the chair.

"It belongs to the Yavin system."

"Yavin? Wasn't the Great Sith War fought on Yavin 4? And the first Death Star was destroyed there as well."

"That's right. Do you know anymore history about the Battle at Yavin?"

Gaeriel was updating her knowledge in Old Republic and Alliance history, including any information about Jedi. She thought knowing everything she could about events of the past would help her in decision making as a senator. "Well, it was the first important win for the Rebel Alliance. The Death Star was destroyed by a couple of proton torpedoes from as X-wing fighter. From what I understand, getting a couple of proton torpedoes down a two meter opening in next to impossible." Gaeriel paused. "Wait. It was Luke Skywalker who destroyed the Death Star."

"I was wondering when you were going to figure out the connection."

"What connection?"

"Luke has a Jedi Academy on Yavin 4. I thought you knew."

Gaeriel's enthusiasm diminished. "I guess he never bothered to tell me. I haven't spoken to him in over ten years. The last piece of news I heard about him was he was a traitor of the New Republic. Like I really believed that piece of news. That's what I get for reading those religious data cards from my sister."

Eppie grabbed Gaeri's arm. "You have to talk to him. He could have been thinking about you, too. He might have sensed your thoughts last night."

"Over that long of a distance? Yea, right."

"Don't underestimate what Luke is able to do with the Force. You might be interested that he is a Jedi Master now."

Gaeriel looked a her chrono. "I've got to go to my office. I have a meeting with a New Republic General in a couple of hours." She hugged Eppie and went out the door.

Gaeriel sped to her office at Bakur Complex, walked into her office and sat down at her desk. Gaeriel sat looking at the holovid blankeyed wondering if she should take Eppie's suggestion in initiating the first move to contact Luke. Finally, she asked the holovid to establish a connection to the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4.

She waited several minutes while the holovid determined how to get the connection, then to see if Gaeriel's senatorial status was enough to get authorization to even communicate with the academy. The face of a young woman appeared on the screen. "May I help you," the young woman asked.

"Uh, is this the Jedi Academy," Gaeriel asked, unsure if she got the right place, especially at the slowness of the connection.

"Yes, it is."

"I would like to speak to Commander Skywalker."

"Master Skywalker is still sleeping. Can I have him contact you later?"

"I think he wouldn't mind if he was woken for this call. Could you please wake him up?"

"Sure. Can I ask who is calling?"

"Senator Captison."

"I'll be back. Please hold."

Great, I'm on hold, waiting for someone who probably isn't available. And that was probably his wife.

A bell rang on Luke's stateroom. "Yes," he said groggily.

"Master Skywalker, someone is on the holovid for you. She seemed anxious to talk to you." The young woman stayed on the other side of the door.

"Was it Leia?"

"No. She's a senator. Obviously she doesn't have current news because she still referred to you as Commander."

Luke sat up in his bed. "What was her name?"

"Senator Captison."

Luke jumped out of bed, grabbed his robe, quickly put it on, and ran out the door.

"I guess it was pretty important." The young woman said.

Gaeriel was waiting on the holovid for Luke to appear on the screen. She kept on thinking who was that woman. Gaeriel was getting frustrated and almost disconnected, when Luke's face appeared.

"Hello, Gaeriel," Luke said, "What's wrong?" Luke covered a yawn with his hand.

"Luke, it's good to talk to you. I've wondered what happened to you since you left Bakura. I don't know how to tell you what happened last night," Gaeriel said.

"Just tell me."

"I woke up from a nightmare last night, walked to the window in my bedroom to look at the stars. I was very intrigued by this one particular star. For some odd reason, I happened to be thinking of you at the time. I went back to sleep, then woke up several hours later. I went to talk to Eppie and see if she could help me identify this star that I couldn't stop envisioning in my head. She identified it as the star of the Yavin system. I remembered the name from history - the Great Sith war and the destruction of the first Death Star. Then I remembered who destroyed the Death Star - it was you. Eppie figured out the connection. She thought that you could feel my feelings even over the great distance between Yavin and Bakura. That's when I came here to my office to contact you."

Luke sat back in the chair he was sitting on, scratching his unshaven beard. "I have something to tell you, Gaeri. I did sense your thoughts last night because I had a vision about you. I wanted to know if you were all right. I know you were thinking about me."

Gaeriel blushed.

"Don't be ashamed of your feelings," Luke said with Force undertones.

"I should be. You are already spoken for. That woman who answered the holovid," she stopped in mid-sentence and had to wipe tears from her eyes.

"Don't jump to conclusions. I'm not married. Her husband is a Jedi who is studying here at the academy. They were newlyweds when I found him. I didn't think it was right to separate them at the beginning of their life together."

Gaeriel sat there a couple of seconds, thinking about what Luke just said. "Why didn't you tell me that you had formed a Jedi Academy on Yavin 4?"

"I wasn't sure how you would take the knowledge. I don't know how it fits into your beliefs."

"After all the events with the Ssi-Ruuk, I've learned the truth about my beliefs. I've learned that you can't necessarily take everything you are taught or told as being the absolute truth. I would have been grateful if you told me about the academy. Maybe with a few more Jedi like yourself, the galaxy would become a safer place."

Luke had a haunted look on his face which quickly disappeared. "I need to talk to you privately. I need to tell you the truth about my heritage."

"This is a very private connection."

"No. I need to see you. In the vision I had last night, you were in danger. I can protect you."

Gaeriel gasped. "Someone is trying to kill me. I've got some crazed lunatic following me wherever I go. He leaves these raunchy messages here at the office and at home. I've even gotten them delivered in the middle of senate hearings. He says if I don't become his 'woman' that he is going to kill me, because no one else should have me. Security is still trying to figure out who he is."

"I'm leaving for Tatooine later today. I'll be there for several days. Why don't you join me? I have some," he paused, "business to take care of."

"I can't leave Bakura. Eppie needs me. My constituents need me. I can't abandon my work."

"When was the last time you were on vacation? The only way to get this lunatic out of the picture is for you to get off the planet."

"Are you sure? Will I be safe?"

"As long as you are with me, you should be fine."

Gaeriel hesitated. "Okay, I'll meet you on Tatooine. Send me the details of where I'm to meet you to Eppie's. She hasn't had the lunatic break into her system yet."

"Sure. I'll see you soon."

"Good-bye, Luke."

The holovid picture disappeared.

Luke stared at the blank screen for a couple of minutes, smiling at the screen. Gaeriel is returning to my life - I can feel it through the Force, he thought. But he still had that vision about Gaeriel in danger. He wasn't sure this crazy person that Gaeriel had anything to do with the vision, but he did feel it was a start to events to come.

Several fingers tapped on his shoulder. He snapped out of his daydream.

"Master Skywalker, is everything okay?" the young woman asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He placed his left hand in his blond hair and ruffled it. "Why don't you gather the Jedi together in the Great Hall. I'll be there as soon as I get on some clothes." Then he proceeded to return to his room.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Agents of Espionage

Zithtral sat at his desk, looking through the reports his agents turn-in every week on their espionage missions across the galaxy. Thumbing through the reports, he found that one of his agents had not turned in his weekly report. This particular mission was the most important mission of them all - to stalk a certain senator and get the plans of a new weapon. Normally, Zithtral would have one of his own kind infiltrate governments, but he decided on a human for this job, after learning that Bakurans are not particulary fond of aliens. He wanted certain technology for himself and developed a spy system throughout the Bakuran government by placing videobugs in all government offices.

One of those offices was Gaeriel Captison's.

Gaeriel Captison would not love a Cretaphalon, he thought. His kind scared people enough with their given names, let alone with the properties of their kind. He pulled the latest hologram of Senator Captison, turning a soft lavender while looking at the hologram.

Pollard Tevloor walked into the office. "Sorry I'm so late with the report about Senator Captison. I had to acquire some additional information on the case," Pollard said, "It required some methods you would be proud of. It's the reason why I'm personally handing in my report instead of by holovid. "

Zithtral turned back to his normal orange coloring. "Nevermind. Let me see the report."

Pollard pulled the data card out of his pocket and quickly handed it to Zithtral, who snatched it faster than Pollard could blink.

Zithtral put the data card into the appropriate socket on his console and began reading the report.

The report contained very mundane items about Senator Captison, but one item stood out from all of the others - Gaeriel telling her 'trusted aid' Pollard that she was taking a personal leave of absense.

"What does this mean 'personal leave of absense', Pollard?" Zithtral said as he turned a tomato-red.

"Sir, she has disappeared, but I know where she is," Pollard said.

"Oh? Well, why don't you amuse me and tell me!"

"I'll do better than that. I have the recordings of her conversation with General Antilles and a holovid conversation with a Luke Skywalker. I went to Eppie Belden to find out her whereabouts, and I got rid of that old hag for good, but I did get the information." Pollard handed the tapes to Zithtral.

The first one Zithtral placed into the socket was Gaeriel's conversation with General Antilles:

Gaeriel was sitting at her desk, with a pair of goggles over her eyes, very relaxed.

"Senator, General Antilles is here," Pollard announced over the intercom.

"Good. Send him in," she responded.

Wedge Antilles entered the office wearing civilian clothing instead of his officer's uniform. "Senator Captison, I'm Wedge Antilles," he said.

Gaeriel took off the goggles and gently placed them on her desk. "Please sit down," she said to Wedge. "Please close the door, Pollard."

"Uh, yeah," Pollard said as he exited the room and closed the door.

"I see you are not here for the New Republic," Gaeriel said.

"Oh, the clothes. Well, I'm on Bakura for the New Republic, but I came to visit you as a favor to a friend. He wants to know how you and Eppie Belden are doing, Senator," Wedge said.

Gaeriel straighten her back. "Please, call me Gaeriel. You're visiting me because Luke wants to know how I am? That's pretty ironic, General. I called him earlier today."

"Call me Wedge. You talked to Luke? What did he say?"

"Well, he said he's going to Tatooine. He invited me to join him. I'm going to pick up the instructions from Eppie later today. My computer cannot encrypt and decode like Eppie's talking computer. I've even been doing my own research about Tatooine."

"Not much on the planet, considering it's all desert."

"Yeah. I've been looking at views of the planet in these virtual goggles." She handed the goggles to Wedge.

Wedge put them on. "Everything's the same on Tatooine. On Corellia, where I'm from, you can do many things and never get bored."

"Sounds like you're homesick?"

"Yeah, I guess. I left home after my parents died and joined the Rebellion. That's where I met Luke. Ah, the good old days."

"I can program the viewers to project images of Corellia."

Wedge handed the goggles to Gaeriel. She placed the goggles into a drawer into her computer. She typed some instructions into the keyboard, then pulled the goggles out of the drawer and handed them to Wedge.

Wedge put them on and smiled at the images flashing before his eyes. "Very impressive. Who developed these? Where can I get a pair?"

"These virtual goggles are one-of-a-kind. Eppie made them for me. I store everything in these, especially government secrets."

Wedge handed them back. "Too bad. They would be great as an entertainment item. What else can these goggles do?"

"I can program things into the goggles just like a normal computer by just thinking about the item to be programmed. Do you think we could talk somewhere else? I just remembered that I have to consult a New Republic representative about a weapon that Eppie developed. I don't feel quite secure in my office these days."

"Sure. Lead the way."

The two of them left the office.

The tape ended. Zithtral then stuck in the conversation with Luke Skywalker into the socket. The vocals on the holovid were not present. Zithtral watched with extreme concentration, causing him to turn a navy blue.Zithtral finally turned to face Pollard, who was standing behind him. "How could you let her leave? Damn!" He slammed his fists on his desk. "Why is she talking with a Jedi Knight?"

"A Jedi? What are you talking about?" Pollard asked.

"This Luke Skywalker is a Jedi Knight. He asked her to accompany him to Tatooine. You're very lucky I can read lips or I would kill you with my bare feet. That's where she is. I want her - dead or alive. If it's dead, at least I can extract the information she has in her memory once her brain is put into stasis."

"You want me to go to Tatooine to hunt her down. Do you know that's next to impossible now that she has a Jedi guarding her?"

"What an opprotunity. I've been wondering what kind of knowledge this Jedi keeps in his memory. Why don't you do something about him as well."

"Sir, this is a Jedi we are talking about here. What do you want me to do, sabatoge his spacecraft?" Pollard said sarcastically.

"Excellent idea. I'll assign Teitrak to you. She's the best sabatoge mechanic we have. Her properties will be useful to succeed. Now, get out of here! The next time I hear from you, I want to hear you succeeded." Zithtral then shot out his immense puce tongue at Pollard, striking the agent in the forehead and stunning him, causing him to collapse onto the floor.

Several minutes later, Pollard got off the floor, using the desk to help himself up. "I will not fail you," he said nearly out of breath, then walked out of the room.

Teitrak un-cloaked herself. She was sitting in the corner of the room, observing the conversation per orders from Zithtral. She was a lighter shade of orange from Zithtral's, more feminine to complement her veluptuous body. "Still obsessed with that b!tch, Zithtral?"

Zithtral remained a calm orange. "I thought she liked me when I visited Bakura several months ago. At least her actions seemed to project that."

"Then why kill her."

"So no one else can have her. I want her as my third wife, and that weapon she knows about could help us in our missions. Her family is rich and powerful. The technological industry on Bakura is very valuable for us." He turned to a shade of light green. "But right now I want my first wife to satisfy me."

Teitrak responded by turning to the same shade of light green.

The two of them cloaked.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - It's Easier to Fly an X-Wing

Before leaving Bakura, Wedge Antilles wanted to visit Eppie Belden, as a favor to Luke, and to talk to her about this device Gaeriel told him about. This device is a surgical tool, Gaeriel told him, but in the wrong hands, it could seem like someone was setting up the Jedi Knights. If the tool is used improperly, the results would seem like someone used a lightsaber and places the blame on the Jedi Knights, resulting in the distrust of the Jedi Knight order across the galaxy. "Someone was after the plans for this very reason, and I'm in danger," Gaeriel told him yesterday. Great, Wedge thought, just great. Your good friend is a Jedi Master and someone wants to make the Jedi Knights out to be the bad guys.

Wedge rang the bell on the apartment door. He leaned down to see his reflection in the metal plate of the bell. Wedge combed his black hair with his hands. He started to wonder what was taking Madam Belden so long to answer the door. He straightened back to an upright military position, hearing a cracking sound from his back, and knocked on the door.

Still no response, Wedge thought. Maybe something's wrong. Luke did say that Madam Belden was approaching 150 years old, probably taking her time to the door for an elderly woman. Or maybe whoever is after this tool thinks Eppie still has the plans.

Wedge became very worried. He knew what he was thinking of doing was slightly illegal, so he looked around the corner to make sure no one was there. He pulled out his blaster and fired at the door switch once he determined the coast was clear.

The door promptly opened. He walked in cautiously into the dark apartment with his blaster in his hand. The apartment is very dark, Wedge thought, almost too dark. He found the lightswitch and turned on the lights.

The apartment was in shambles. Furniture turned over and torn to shreds. Glass and ceramics broken to pieces. Artwork destroyed by a knife. Everything in the apartment definitely was not in its proper place. It looked like a gale force wind hit the apartment, originating from within.

Wedge grabbed his comlink and called for security.

After contacting security, Wedge walked further into the living room. Blood stains covered everything, Wedge finally realized. Most of the stains were dry, but some near the office remained fresh. Someone put up a fight, Wedge thought, and someone lost the fight.

Cautiously, Wedge opened the door to the office. He found a body slumped in a chair with the head resting on the computer. He approached the body, stumbling over a data card in the process.

"Madam Belden?" he asked, knowing that what he feared was true. Eppie Belden was murdered. Blood still oozed out of wounds made by a vibroknife with two blades separated by a five millimeter gap, including the one large gash into her skull.

"Must have bled to death," Wedge said aloud to himself.

Security walked through the door while Wedge was talking to himself. "General Antilles?" one of the officers asked.

"Back in the office," Wedge responded.

The commander came into the office. "It's a good thing you decided to break protocol and enter the apartment, General. It's too bad it wasn't any sooner," the commander said.

"Yea, too bad. Eppie Belden's next of kin need to be notified. I could tell them," Wedge said.

"Sir, she has no next of kin. Her son died over fifteen years ago during the purges. Her husband died during the Ssi-Ruuk invasion."

"I remember that. I was in an X-wing at the time. What about friends? Someone has to be notified."

"The Captison family are her closest friends."

Wedge thought about it, scratching his chin. "Senator Gaeriel Captison," he said under his breath.

"Sir?" the commander asked.

"Nothing. I was just thinking. I'll tell Prime Minister Captison and his family about the tragic news of Eppie Belden's death," Wedge said.

"Sir, I have been guarding Senator Captison for a month. You don't think this murder has anything to do about the stalker?"

"I think so."

"That means her life is in extreme danger! I've got to go and warn her," the commander said as he was about to run out the room until Wedge grabbed his arm.

"She's not here."

"What do you mean?"

"She's not on this planet. As you probably know, she asked for a personal leave of absence from her senatorial duties. I know where she is. Eppie Belden knew where she is. And a good friend of mine knows where she is. If the murderer was able to get information of her whereabouts from Madam Belden, my friend is also in danger, along with some highly respected individuals."

"And you can't tell me, the chief of security in this sector of the city?"

"No, because you could be the stalker. And I promised the Senator that I would not divulge her whereabouts. I just don't know exactly where she is," Wedge said. "Hey, are your coroners going to remove the body anytime soon? I want to see what's on the computer."

The commander motioned to several of his officers, who brought in a repulsor stretcher, and removed the body of Eppie Belden.

Wedge pushed the blood-covered desk chair to one corner, grabbed a crate, and placed it next to the computer, which took up an entire wall. He searched every nook on the computer for a switch to turn it on, until he reached behind the computer.

"Sabotage is not a proper thing for a General," the computer said in a masculine voice.

Wedge fell backwards off the crate. "Who said that?" Wedge said while rubbing his tailbone and returning to the crate.

"I belong to Eppie Belden. I am her voice-operated computer."

Great. A computer that talks. I hope my wife doesn't design a talking computer. It would probably be just as annoying as Threepio, Wedge thought. "I'm not trying to sabotage you. I'm trying to find out who murdered Eppie Belden and to get the exact whereabouts of Gaeriel Captison. My name is Wedge Antilles, New Republic General."

"The only way I can give you access is if you can prove you are a New Republic General like you say you are. ID please." The computer opened a door to the data card reader.

"Hokay." Wedge shrugged his shoulders and stuck in his New Republic ID into the data card slot.

Name: Wedge Antilles

Place of Birth: Corellia

Citizen: New Republic

Rank: New Republic General

Spouse: Dr. Qwi Xux, former Imperial weapons designer

Highlights of Military Career: Served in Red Squadron as Red Two during the Battle at Yavin. Served in Rogue Squadron as Rogue Three during Battle of Hoth. Became temporary Rogue Leader during the Battle at Endor. Only pilot to fight and survive both Death Star battles. Served as Rogue One during the Battle at Bakura. Accepted the rank of Commander and promoted to Rogue Leader two years after the Battle at Bakura. Lead the Battle for Sluis Van. Was part of the recovery team of the Katana Fleet dreadnoughts' recovery as Rogue Squadron escort and protection. Fought during the Battle at Bilbringi, the last battle with the Imperial forces under the command of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Accepted the rank of General one year later. Fought during the Battle of Calamari, during the period of the resurrection of the Emperor. Helped in the reconstruction of Imperial City. Liberated the Maw Installation near Kessel.

"Huh. I wonder how many credits the Empire wants for your capture. Eppie Belden's is probably higher," the computer said.

A computer with a sense of humor, really cute, Wedge thought. "She was also a lot older than I. Look, are you going to give me access or not?" Wedge had a slight tone of anger in his voice.

"Oh, all right. What do you want?"

Wedge had to think -- what was he looking for exactly? "Okay. Has there been anyone else besides myself that has requested access to you within the past several days?"

The computer printed up a list of the last users on the screen.

Gaeriel Captison, Bakuran Senator

Yeorg Captison, Bakura Prime Minister

Pollard Tevloor, assistant to Gaeriel Captison

Eppie Belden, my inventor and friend!

"I see you can't stop the humor, huh." Wedge scratched his chin. "Pollard Tevloor? Very interesting indeed. What information did he retrieve?"

The computer displayed a map of Mos Eisley, Docking Bay 94 at the spaceport, directions to Anchorhead, and several suggestions of the type of clothing to bring along.

"Who sent this message and who is the message for?" Wedge knew the answer, but he had to ask it anyway.

"The message was sent by Luke Skywalker for Gaeriel Captison," the computer said, sounding more like Threepio, Wedge thought.

Gaeriel did mention that she called Luke. Luke told her that he was traveling to Tatooine and that he invited her to join him. She accepted the invitation, she told Wedge over a cup of chocolate coffee. Could it be possible that Pollard Tevloor is the stalker, Wedge asked himself. "How did Pollard Tevloor get this message?"

"Sir, I think the answer to that question could be answered by the last entry of Eppie's."

Wedge expected a message, but when the video appeared, he was stunned. He was awe-inspired as he sat there watching the events on the screen unfold. Eppie Belden recorded her murder, and most importantly, the murderer.

"Shit! Eppie Belden recorded her own murder," he exclaimed. "I knew I didn't like this Pollard the first time I met him. The guy gave me the creeps."

"Me, too," the computer said.

Wedge ran out of the office and grabbed one of the investigators, who was examining a shredded piece of artwork at the time. The investigator protested Wedge's actions at first, but when Wedge mentioned that the computer had recorded the entire murder, the investigator beat Wedge to the office. The investigator also recognized the murderer.

"He's one of Senator Captison's personal assistants," the investigator said as he pointed to the screen.

"And he came here looking for her whereabouts," Wedge said.

"I'll put a warrant out for his arrest. I also need a copy of this murder recording. Could you do that for me?"

Wedge stuck a data card into the socket and the computer copied the recording of the murder, then handed it to the investigator.

The investigator left the room. Wedge stuck another data card into the socket. "Please download the message to Gaeriel Captison from Luke Skywalker on this data card." The computer recorded the information onto the data card, including the recording of the murder.

I guess I get to save my friends butts for once, Wedge thought. It's easier to fly an X-wing than to chase a murderer across the galaxy. Good thing Tatooine isn't that far away from Bakura.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Remembering the Past

Luke Skywalker planned this trip to Tatooine for months. He knew he had to return to Ben's homestead to find his holocron. If Ben even had one, Luke thought. He also wanted to clear up some matters from his past while he was on Tatooine, especially talking to Biggs Darklighter's family and telling them about their son's death, and to visit the farm where he grew up. He wanted to return to the place where his destiny was set into motion. He needed to let those memories flow loose.

Luke wiggled around in his blankets while resting on his bunk aboard his new modified shuttle, thinking about how he's going to tell Gaeriel that Darth Vader was actually Anakin Skywalker, his father. He hoped she would be able to take the news like Leia did when he first told her. She was frightened, but the shock did finally wear off. It took several years, but it did eventually wear off.

Hyperspace sirens went off in his cabin. He sat up in the bunk, pulled on his black boots, and walked off to the cockpit.

Threepio sat in the co-pilot's seat, trying to pull the hyperspace lever, but kept on hitting useless buttons and levers.

"Threepio, I'll take care of it," Luke said as he sat down in the pilot's seat. He reached forward for the hyperspace lever and pushed it away from him. Hyperspace lines suddenly turned to stars. The bright planet of Tatooine lay ahead, with its binary stars off in the distance. One of Tatooine's two moons could also be seen. The other was hidden from view.

"Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from," Threepio said, trying to imitate Luke's voice.

Luke turned his head towards Threepio, raising an eyebrow. "What," he asked with a slight giggle in his voice.

"That was your reply when I asked you what planet Artoo and I were on."

"You still amaze me, Threepio. That was a long time ago."

"My memory is full of every adventure that I have participated on with you, Princess Leia, Master Han, and all of my previous owners. And I don't see why I needed to come on this trip. I never liked this planet. All of that sand could cause a lot of harm to us droids. And the experiences I've had on this planet, well, I'd rather forget them."

"Think of this way, Threepio. If you and Artoo didn't escape from Leia's ship, land on Tatooine and get captured by some Jawas, and get purchased by my uncle, you would be rotting in the Jungland wastes instead of with Leia, Han, and myself."

"I see your point." Threepio became quiet.

Artoo trilled a song over the comm unit. He was flying Luke's X-wing. Luke wanted the X-wing with him just in case some trouble decided to happen. Like it tends to happen, Luke thought.

The translation appeared on the comm unit's screen.

"Artoo, I need you with me. I don't know what I'm going to find at Ben's. I might need your sensors. Threepio can help Gaeri get to Anchorhead. I know you want to see her, too, but being with me at Ben's is important as well."

Artoo trilled a reply of okay.

"New Republic ship 92551 and X-wing escort requesting landing at Mos Eisley Spaceport, docking bay 94," Luke said into the comm unit.

Luke waited for a response, and got to thinking about how many times he visited Tatooine since he left. He counted the trips on one hand, the prostetic hand. Never is a long time, Luke thought, remembering something he told Ben right before they left Tatooine on-board the _Millennium Falcon_.

"New Republic ship 92551 and escort okayed for landing at docking bay 94," the spaceport operator said.

Luke and Artoo landed both spacecrafts into the docking bay with precision.

Luke stepped out of the shuttle, walked over to the X-wing, and helped Artoo get out of his socket. Threepio waddled out of the shuttle and to the X-wing. "Master Luke, when will Mistress Captison land?"

"Sometime today. At least that's what her last message said." I hope it's today, Luke thought.

Luke walked back to the shuttle, opened the storage compartment, and stepped inside. Inside the compartment were two small landspeeders. Different from the one that Luke used to own, these were smaller, faster, and useful in most climates. He acquired these from Leia, who thought they would be great on Yavin 4.

"I think Artoo and I should get going. Threepio, please watch the shuttle until Gaeriel arrives. Then escort her to Anchorhead. The spare speeder is for her to use. If she needs any help, please help her, okay. Oh, and don't tell any stories. I don't want you accidentally blurting anything about Vader, okay. I need to tell her myself."

Luke helped Artoo into the speeder, and took off towards Ben's.

Luke sat in the speeder for several minutes after he arrived at Ben's old homestead. His dark blonde hair was windblown and appeared lighter in the intense sunlight emanating from the two suns of Tatooine. He just stared at the house, almost as if he was seeing a ghost from the past -- his own past.

Artoo warbled a question, which Luke had to guess the translation.

"Okay, I guess we should go inside," Luke told the astrodroid.

Luke helped Artoo out of the speeder, and cautiously entered the building.

The natural sunlight was dissipated throughout the homestead. Luke took a look around the room. "Amazing that the Tusken Raiders haven't raided the place. I wonder if that's Ben's doing."

Artoo moved next to Luke.

"Do you detect anything electronic, Artoo?"

Artoo shook his body like he was nodding a yes response.

"Well, take me in the direction, Artoo."

Artoo lead Luke to a chest, the same chest that Ben kept Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber in. Luke lifted the top up to expose the contents. For a Jedi Master, Ben was obviously a pack rat because this chest was disorganized. Luke began pulling out the items in the chest.

The first item was just what he was looking for -- Ben's holocron. Most Jedi Masters had one, to pass on to his students for learning purposes. Luke activated the holocron. This one was different from the other holocrons he acquired from his Jedi artifact trips. This one was Luke's former teacher, which made it special.

"I am Obi-Wan Kenobi, the keeper of this holocron. What do you wish to ask me, Jedi," Obi-Wan asked.

Luke just stared at the image for a second. 'It's good to see you, Ben,' he said to himself. "I am Luke Skywalker, a student of yours. I don't want to fail as a Jedi Master. I want to learn about how my father failed you, and not make the same mistake for my students."

The image contemplated the question. "Ah, your father, Anakin Skywalker was a great Jedi, one of my brightest students. He was seduced by the dark side by Emperor Palpatine."

Luke interrupted. "I know all about that. I want to know how he could leave his family to become the Dark Lord of the Sith."

"The dark side can manipulate a person's thoughts and beliefs. When your father turned to the dark side of the Force, he didn't care anything about his wife and his friends well-being. He only cared about himself, making him very selfish. He only wanted power for himself, not to share it with anyone else. Anakin believed that becoming Emperor Palpatine's servant was the only way to wield this power, through the dark side of the Force. He became the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, and wanted to destroy the Jedi Knights, who almost destroyed him. I wasn't any help. I created your father."

"What about my mother? What was she like?"

"I can't answer that."

"Why not?"

"I did not record that in the holocron."

Luke was dissappointed. "Thank you."

Ben's image dissapeared.

Luke placed the holocron in his pocket of his beige outfit, having to pull out the portion of his robe that accidently got tucked into the pocket.

He decided to rummage through the chest some more. He found some very strange things inside. Some badges from the Clone Wars. Metals of honor. A glimer stick from Dagobah. An X-wing rivet. A leaf with featherlike features. Several common crystals. And a data disk with Luke's name on it.

A data disk for me? Luke stuck the data disk into Artoo. Artoo turned on his holographic projector to show the image of a woman with dark brown hair and amber eyes. She wore a senatorial outfit, similar to the one Mon Mothma used to wear, except this one was royal blue instead of white.

"Luke, I am your mother. I wanted to record this for you for when you found out the truth about your father. I hope Ben gave it to you as I requested. We both believed that you also need to hear my side of the story and why Leia and you were separated. This is the only way you will ever get to know who I am. I hope you forgive me for separating the two of you. I never wanted to do it, but I had to for your protection, as well as mine and Leia's."

Luke stared at the image. This is my mother, he thought. He sat down on the cold floor, crossing his legs, and placing his elbows on the floor with his head between his hands.

"I am a Lady of the house of Alderaan. My brother is the viceroy of Alderaan, Bail Organa. I fell in love with Anakin, your father, when he saved my life at the end of the Clone Wars. That's when I also met Obi-Wan. Your father was a true gentleman. We had a courtship that lasted several years before we decided to get married. I didn't mind him being away so much while we were married. I understood that the Jedi Knights were always in need somewhere in the galaxy. Diplomats and Jedi Knights are very similar in many ways. We lived on Coruscant, the capital of the Republic, where I could keep up with my diplomatic duties. About five years into our marriage, Anakin and I discussed starting a family. He wasn't sure about the idea, saying that having children would hamper my diplomatic duties. I told him that children would not get in the way of my duties. We didn't discuss it ever again. I started to notice a change in Anakin's behavior several months later. He began to get very angry at the smallest things. Obi-Wan warned him not to get angry because that was the dark side of the Force. I never understood these things, being that I'm not a Jedi, but he was right. It was not right for Anakin to become angry at the smallest things. The next day, he left me. This was the same day I found out that I was pregnant. I cried for days, having to hand my duties temporarily to someone else because I was so saddened by Anakin leaving me.

"I knew I had to turn to someone, so I contacted Obi-Wan. He came over to talk to me. He wanted to talk some sense into Anakin, to find him and bring him back to the good side and to me. When he returned, he told me what happened to Anakin, about him falling into a molten pit. Obi-Wan said Anakin clawed his way out of the pit, burned into his soul was the dark side, no trace of Anakin left. Only the black will of Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith, existed in the place where his loving heart used to be. Obi-Wan told me that the children I carried inside me were a threat to Anakin. The future of the galaxy were my unborn children, and they needed to be protected, along with myself. I resigned from the Republic and went into hiding.

"The happiest and saddest day of my life was when you and Leia were born. I became very depressed, knowing that I would never see my son grow up and become a Jedi Knight. I might never see my daughter grow up, either. Obi-Wan took you to his brother Owen and sister-in-law Beru, to live with them on Tatooine. I allowed my brother to adopt Leia and become part of the Royal Family of Alderaan as a Princess, not as a Lady like myself. I hope you understand I did this to protect you as long as possible from Anakin. If he ever found out, it would be disasterous.

"My son, I love you." The hologram dissappeared.

Luke sat there, contemplating what he just watched, what he just heard. A tear ran down the left side of his cheek. He wiped it away with a single finger.

Artoo trilled a question.

"I'm all right Artoo." He stood up. "I think I've found enough for today. I want to visit the farm."

Artoo and Luke climbed back into the speeder and headed towards the Lars homestead, knowing that he was stepping over another emotional hurtle, the second one today. But he needed to visit the farm. The murder of his aunt and uncle affected his life greatly, molding his destiny into what he is today -- a Jedi Knight. He needed to visit the site of that great change.

Luke stopped the shuttle one kilometer from the farm. He looked up towards the sky. He opened himself to the Force, hoping someone would answer the questions his mind was creating at an incredible pace. Suddenly, he looked towards the horizon, in the general direction of Anchorhead.

"Gaeriel's here," he said. "At least she's going to be safe soon. It will be good to see her again."

He walked towards the farm. The sandpeople raided the landscape. No moisture evaporators could be seen in the distance. The landscape became a dune field, constantly changing its shape and moving forward like sluggish waves of water. He proceeded to the living area, the homestead.

Luke suddenly stopped. He felt like he was eighteen again, seeing the charred skeletons of his aunt and uncle lying outside the main dome, the smell of burning flesh, smoke from the fire inside the dome escaping to the outside atmosphere. Luke squeezed his eyes shut, trying to forget the horror of that day. He wasn't eighteen anymore. He was a Jedi Master, and most importantly, a man.

Luke walked towards the skeletons and began to cry. He never cried for their deaths -- he should have a long time ago, though. When he first found his aunt and uncle's bodies, he felt angry. They were the only family he had ever known.

Now, things were different in Luke's life. He did have a family, he was not alone. Leia, his sister and close friend. Han, brother-in-law and the best friend anyone could want. And, of course, Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin, his niece and nephews, who he loved so much. But he wanted more, and Gaeriel was the person he wanted to share his life with. He stood back up and entered the charred ruins of the homestead, to search for anything from his past.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 -- A Planet of Mystery

Gaeriel never liked traveling on public transports -- she hasn't traveled on one for years. That was when she returned to Bakura after studying at Imperial Center on Coruscant. She always got the worst case of airsickness from the vibrations caused by the shuttles. Hopefully this bout of sickness will be worth it, she thought.

Gaeriel looked out the window as the shuttle came out of hyperspace and began its approach to Tatooine. She could see the geological features of this planet, such as the sand dunes slowly moving across the desert. She knew the planet didn't have any natural bodies of water, but with the canyons, deeply cut into the strata, and all the sand that dominated the planet, she knew at some time in Tatooine's geologic past, this planet had to have water in order for these features to be created. Gaeri then looked towards the binary stars, and knew why the water disappeared. The planet itself could be mistaken for a star at a great distance, due to the reflection of the light emanating from the binary stars onto the planet's surface.

The shuttle jerked towards the atmosphere, causing Gaeriel to tightly grip the armrest of her chair. The person next to her looked strangely at Gaeriel, probably because Gaeriel accidentally grabbed his arm, thinking it was part of the armrest. Gaeriel released her grip. Shutting her eyes didn't help, either. As a matter of fact, it made things worse. It intensified the movements of the shuttle in her inner ear. She gave up and opened her eyes, and watched the shuttle land in Mos Eisley.

Gaeriel was the only passenger to debark in Mos Eisley, which didn't surprise her. Who would actually travel to Tatooine for a vacation, she thought sarcastically. She walked outside the docking bay and began looking for Docking Bay 94, the place where Luke said he would be. She felt out of place on the streets of Mos Eisley. She wore an emerald green jumpsuit, something considered casual on Bakura, but on Tatooine, it was extravagant and elaborate. People wore homespun clothing in natural colors. She began to wonder if people would recognize her profession, as a diplomat. Then she remembered that nobody knew who she was, unless the stalker is waiting for her.

The thought frightened her. Gaeriel pulled a data card out of her bag and read the contents. She began walking towards the other docking bays, according to the map displayed on the data card. She asked several people if they knew where the docking bay was, but they just ignored her and blew her off. She then spotted an elderly woman and decided to ask her for directions.

The elderly woman said that Docking Bay 94 was straight ahead. She also said that particular docking bay was famous, sort of. She said a smuggler named Han Solo always landed his freighter, the _Millennium Falcon_, in that docking bay everytime he came to Tatooine, usually to deal with Jabba the Hutt.

That's interesting, Gaeriel thought. "When was the last time the _Millennium Falcon_ landed in that docking bay," Gaeriel asked.

"Right before the first Death Star was destroyed," the elderly woman said.

Gaeriel began to walk away, but turned around. "How do you know Han Solo?"

"I've dealt several sabacc games to that lucky bastard," the elderly woman said as she walked off.

Okay, I touched the wrong cord with that woman, she thought. Gaeriel proceeded to walk in the direction the elderly woman pointed towards. She couldn't help noticing all of the aliens in the streets of Mos Eisley. She has only seen several alien species, but all of these looked nothing like the ones she's seen. There was Chewbacca the Wookiee. And those blasted Ssi-Ruuk who tried to invade Bakura. And the Cretaphalon were the most mysterious of them all. A species that changes the color of their skin by what kind of mood they're in, and can naturally cloak. And they even looked scary, with those razor-sharp claws on their feet, that immense three-prong forked tongue, and the chitinous crustacean plating all over them, even on their fingers.

Finally, she reached Docking Bay 94. Gaeriel took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked down a flight of stairs into the bay. She noticed two ships -- a modified transport ship and an X-wing fighter. That's strange, she thought. Might as well see if Luke's here. "Luke," she yelled, "Where are you?"

A golden droid stepped out of the transport. "Mistress Captison. Mistress Captison."

"Hello, Threepio. Where is Luke? He told me to meet him here."

"Master Luke went ahead. He says for us to meet him in Anchorhead. He has a landspeeder for us in the storage compartment for us," Threepio said.

"As small as this ship is and he's able to squeeze a large landspeeder into the cargo hold?"

Threepio guided Gaeriel to the cargo hold.

She saw a very small two-person landspeeder, larger than a speeder bike but smaller than her airspeeder. "I guess it's a good thing I didn't bring much with me." Gaeriel placed her bag into a compartment in the landspeeder that was the exact size for the bag. "So, who's going to drive?"

"I can, if you would like, Mistress Captison."

"Please, call me Gaeriel. And why is there an X-wing here?" She stepped into the landspeeder.

"Master Luke wanted his X-wing with him, just in case there was any trouble," Threepio said as he sat in the driver's seat, which was directly in front of Gaeriel's seat.

"Trouble? I don't know what he's expecting to happen."

Finally, Threepio and Gaeriel reached Anchorhead, a moisture farming community. Threepio stopped the speeder outside Tosche Station, where three men and one woman were sitting in flimsy, overused chairs underneath the overhangs of the building.

"They must be lost! Look at how she's dressed," the woman said.

"Well, she looks pretty good in it, Camie. Maybe you should try wearing something like that instead of this sun- and sand-beaten thing you call clothing," the first man said.

"Shut up, Fixer," Camie said.

Gaeriel began walking up to the group, but turned to ask Threepio a question. "Are you sure this is the place," she asked.

"Yes, Mistress Gaeriel. Master Luke said to meet him in Anchorhead," Threepio said.

Gaeriel shrugged her shoulders, and approached the group. "Excuse me, I'm looking for someone. Has Luke Skywalker been here?"

"You mean Wormie? Haven't seen him in fifteen years, at least. Last time we all saw him was when he blasted into the station yelling something about a battle beyond the atmosphere," the second man said.

"He always did crap like that. I thought he might have died when his uncle's farm was burned," the third man said.

"Quiet, Deak. I'm Windy. This is Fixer, Camie, and the one with the big mouth is Deak," Windy said. "I personally never thought he was dead. Heard some vague rumors about a hotshot destroying something called the Death Star. Hey, that's about the time Skywalker disappeared," Windy said.

"Wormie? I guess I'll have to ask him about that. I'm Gaeriel. Luke told me to meet him here in Anchorhead. I guess he's not here," Gaeriel said.

"He did say he had some matters to attend to before meeting us here," Threepio said.

"Maybe he's at his childhood home. It was destroyed fifteen years ago, but who knows what Wormie's ever going to do. I could go with you, if you wish," Windy

said.

"My landspeeder is very small. If you have a larger speeder, you can come with us, if we can use yours," Gaeriel said.

Windy assisted Gaeriel and Threepio to his landspeeder, which was located around the corner of the building. The three of them sat in the landspeeder, and took off towards the dune sea.

Windy remained silent for several minutes, then finally had enough courage to speak. "So, how's Luke," he asked.

"I haven't seen him in over ten years, but I spoke to him several days ago, and he seemed fine to me," Gaeri said.

They finally reached the Lars homestead. The burn scars were still present on the domes, blackened carbon caked the sides of the domes. Gaeriel hopped out of the landspeeder, while Windy and Threepio calmly stepped out. Gaeriel ran toward the main dome, but was stopped by Windy.

"What," she asked.

"It doesn't look like anyone's here. I don't think we should even be here," Windy said.

"Maybe he's inside. Threepio, do you detect anything unusual -- any electronics or can you detect Artoo," she asked.

"Mistress Captison, Artoo is better at detection. I am a protocol droid, fluent in over six million forms of communication," Threepio said.

"Well, maybe we should go back. If he's here he can take care of himself. After all, he is a Jedi," Gaeriel said.

"A Jedi? You're crazy just like Luke," Windy said.

"He is a Jedi Knight. He saved my life back on Bakura, prevented the occupation from an alien force, and cured a very good friend of mine. He's very strong," Gaeriel said.

"I guess I'll have to see this for myself," Windy said under his breath.

Gaeriel began walking slowly toward the main dome. "Luke! Are you here?"

"Hey, Skywalker," Windy yelled.

Gaeriel stopped when she saw the two skeletons. She approached them, and began to cry. "I thought seeing my parents dead was horrible. The Empire did this," she said. Gaeriel heard something dragging in the sand. She turned to see what it was.

"I was shocked the first time I saw my aunt and uncle smoldering from the fire the stormtroopers started. It set off a whole chain of events," Luke said as he approached Gaeriel.

Threepio waddled to his counterpart, Artoo. "What have you been doing?" Artoo replied with a soft sounding trill.

"Luke," she said, relieved, "I'm glad I found you."

Windy came running towards them. "Luke Skywalker. Where the hell have you been? You disappeared without saying good-bye," Windy said.

"It's a long story," Luke replied.

"Hey, what happened to Biggs? We haven't heard from him in a long time, either. Maybe he didn't have the time after joining the Empire," Windy said.

"I'll tell you later, Windy. Gaeri, I told Threepio for the two of you to wait for me in Anchorhead," Luke said.

"Your friend was glad to escort me out here. I wanted to see you," Gaeriel said. "And why does everyone call you Wormie?"

"I was able to worm my way out of things," Luke said. Luke glanced towards the Jundland wastes. "Someone's coming."

Gaeriel looked in the same direction. She saw an older woman driving a landspeeder approach the group. "Do you know her, Luke?" Gaeri asked.

"No, but I wonder why she's here."

The woman parked at the other end of the farm, away from Luke, Gaeriel, Windy, Threepio, and Artoo. She stepped out and walked past the crowd, and to the skeletons. She knelt next to them, like she was praying. She wore a dark blue robe, hiding her face underneath. Finally, she got up, wiped a tear from her eye, and approached the group. "How long ago did this happen?"

"Fifteen years ago," Luke said, looking at her with such intensity.

"Fifteen years ago?" she said surprised. "Such a tragedy. The Empire did this," she said.

"Yes," Luke said, "Did you know the Lars family?"

She paused, then finally answered, "Yes, but I haven't seen them in over thirty years."

"How did you know them?" Gaeriel asked.

"It's still a mystery to me, even after all of these years," she said.

"My name is Gaeriel. This is Luke, and his friend, Windy," Gaeriel said.

"I am Padme'," she said as she pulled the hood off her head. Her hair was a light gray, and her eyes were amber brown. Padme' kept her age very well, hardly any wrinkles on her face. The only thing about her signifying her age was her light gray hair.

"I think we should be heading back, Luke. The sandpeople are still very active and almost dusk," Windy said.

"It was nice meeting you, Padme'," Luke said. Luke watched Padme' take off in her landspeeder, still entranced by the woman.

"Luke, who's riding with whom," Gaeriel asked.

Luke responded, "I guess you can ride with me. I do want to talk to you. Windy, is it okay if my droids ride with you?"

"Sure. Hey, just stop by the station. Some old friends want to see you," Windy said and helped Artoo and Threepio into his landspeeder and took off.

"Luke, are you okay," Gaeriel asked.

"Yea, I'm fine. But that woman, Padme', she's hiding something. And she seems so familiar to me, but I've never seen her or met her until today."

"Are your Jedi instincts telling you this?"

"In a way, but she seemed very sad by how she presented herself. And I guess I want to know how she knows my aunt and uncle."

"You're not the only one. You think because she was friends of your aunt and uncle might be the reason she seems familiar to you?"

"Possibly. I don't know. Let's get going. And maybe we can rest. We both have had long days, and you don't look very good."

"It's called 'I hate flying in shuttlecrafts' sickness."

Luke laughed, then the two of them took off in the little landspeeder.

Luke and Gaeriel finally arrived in Anchorhead, stopping in front of Tosche Station. Windy was waiting outside with Threepio and Artoo.

"Come inside. Everyone wants to see you," Windy said.

Luke and Gaeriel followed Windy into the tavern of the station. Deak, who was in the back of the room yelled, "I don't believe it. Luke Skywalker's back from the dead."

"And for once, he's quiet," Fixer said.

"Hey, what's with the robe, Skywalker," Camie asked.

Luke knew this was a backwater planet, but he didn't think it was that isolated from the New Republic news. "I'm a Jedi Knight," he said.

"A Jedi Knight my foot. You look like that hermit Ben Kenobi," Camie said.

"He was also a Jedi Knight, one of my masters, and a good friend," Luke responded.

"Luke's telling the truth. He saved my life once. I've never seen an ordinary human do some of the things I've seen him do. And Jedi do not lie," Gaeriel said.

No, only tell things from a certain point of view, Luke thought. "Look, I'd like to talk to everyone, but Gaeriel and I would like to get settled. Is the hotel still down the road?"

"Yea," Windy said.

"And can someone tell me if the Darklighters are still around? I need to talk to them."

"Sure. I'll walk the two of you outside," Windy said.

After Windy told Luke the directions to the Darkilghter's homestead, Luke turned to Gaeriel, and hugged her. "I'm glad you're here."

"Me too, but I don't know about this desert weather," Gaeriel said.

The two of them just stood in each others arms, watching the twin stars of Tatooine set along the horizon of sand.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 -- Truths Revealed, Secrets Concealed

Night fell in the small farming community of Anchorhead. Luke and Gaeriel checked into the local hotel in town, getting two rooms with a common living space separating the two rooms. After dinner in the hotel's restaurant, Gaeriel fell asleep on the couch. Luke placed a blanket over her, leaving her rest, and decided to return to Tosche Station to talk to his childhood friends.

While Luke walked the short distance to the station, he felt a chill ride up the back side of his Jedi robe, sending shivers up his spine. A warning? Luke pulled the hood onto his head, dismissed the chill and continued walking to the tavern. The two moons of Tatooine reflected the light from the binary stars, the light shining through the clouds, producing a halo around each moon, with a single halo surrounding both moons. Luke looked up to see the unusual phenomenon, smiled, and walked into the tavern.

Tosche Station became a different place at night, alive with music, games, and the smell of ale permeated the tavern air. Luke found his friends in one of the back corners of the tavern, raised his chin to acknowledge their presence, and walked up to the bar to purchase a drink. He took a sip of the local ale, and walked toward his childhood friends.

Luke grabbed an empty chair, pulled it up to the table, took his Jedi robe off, and sat down. "Hello," he said.

"I guess we'll have to be respectable and well-behaved in front of the Jedi," Deak said.

"Dammit, Deak, would you stop being so negative," Windy said.

"I was only being sarcastic, Windy," Deak said.

"So, Luke. Did you and your friend get settled in at the hotel," Windy asked.

"Yea. Gaeri's resting. She must have been tired from her flight. She's not a frequent traveler," Luke said.

"So, is she your wife," Camie blurted from the other end of the table.

Luke smiled. "No, not yet anyway." Luke took a sip of the ale. "So, what have all of you been up to for the last fifteen years?"

"Well, I'm still a mechanic," Fixer said.

"Yea, and you can officially say that I'm his wife, although at times, he treats me like a slave. Cook this. Clean that. Wear this. Fetch that," Camie said.

Laughter filled the air.

"Yea, well, I'm still working on my parents moisture farm. It's only my mother and I now. My father died a couple of years ago," Windy said.

"Sorry to hear that," Luke said.

"Well, his sight was going. He decided to drive the landspeeder to Anchorhead by himself, ran into a lone bantha at an incredibly fast speed, and died in the impact. When my mother heard what happened, she couldn't decide to cry or laugh," Windy said.

Deak stood up with his mug of ale raised in the air. "I'm a certified bum," Deak shouted at the top of his lungs, then sat down. "Seriously, I opened a skyhopper racing club. You should come down, Skywalker. After all, you were a good pilot, but I'm still the best."

"No way. I'm the best," Fixer said.

"So, Luke, what have you been up to," Windy asked.

"A lot. When I left Tatooine, I joined the Rebel Alliance. I became a commander and leader of Rouge Squadron, the top X-wing squadron in the Alliance. I assisted in destroying the first Death Star. I helped the stop the Ssi-Ruuvi invasion on Gaeriel's home planet of Bakura. About a year later, I resigned my commission, and began my search for Jedi artifacts and Jedi trainees to begin the new order of Jedi Knights. Then I began a Jedi Academy on Yavin 4," Luke said.

"What about this girl, Gaeriel? What does she do," Windy asked.

"She's a senator on her home planet." Luke said.

Deak jumps out of his chair, causing it to fall on the floor. "Hey! I win the bet. Pay up, Fixer," Deak said, with his palm stretched toward Fixer.

Fixer sweared at Deak in Bocce, then reluctantly handed the amount of the bet to Deak.

Luke shook his head. "Deak, could I borrow one of those skyhoppers for tonight," he asked.

"I can let you rent one. Just don't do any of those hotshot maneuvers you used to do," Deak said.

Luke returned to the hotel room and found Gaeriel still resting on the couch. Gaeriel moved under her blanket, peaked over the back of the couch, and saw Luke walk through the door.

"Did I wake you," Luke asked.

"No," Gaeriel said, rubbing her eyes. "I was just getting up."

"Grab something warm. I need to check on Artoo and Threepio first."

"Where are we going?"

"We are going out to Beggars Canyon. The droids are staying behind. We need to talk, and I thought it would be best if we had some privacy, along with a spectactular view."

"Sounds romantic," she yelled at Luke, who was in his bedroom.

"I need to tell you something I wanted to tell you eleven years ago."

Luke walked back to the living room. Gaeriel placed a headband in her long reddish-brown hair. "Where's my bag?"

"Threepio probably placed it in your room for you."

Gaeriel went into her room, found her bag, and pulled out a long brown coat.

"Is this okay," she asked while showing the coat to Luke.

"Yea, that's fine."

"Well, I'm ready."

Luke took Gaeriel's hand, walked out of the hotel room, and down the stairs to the lobby of the hotel. Luke stopped at the bottom of the stairs, almost causing Gaeriel to run right into him.

"Luke, what's wrong?"

"Padme'. She's over there." He pointed to the foyer where there were some chairs. People occupied all of the chairs, but Luke pointed right at the mysterious woman who stopped at the homestead earlier in the day. "I want to talk to her, but what we need to talk about is more important. She can wait."

Luke and Gaeriel walked out of the hotel. Outside, a skyhopper waited. Luke opened the passenger hatch and helped Gaeriel get inside. Then, he walked to the pilot's side and sat down. He powered up the engines of the T-16 and pulled the anti-grav generator throttle forward, causing the skyhopper to rise into the air, and took off slowly over the buildings. Once out of town, Luke floored the skyhooper near maximum speed.

"This is no ordinary airspeeder, is it," Gaeriel said as she held on tight to her seat.

"Nope. These T-16 skyhoppers have a top speed of 1200 k.p.h. They once used the T-16 to teach people to fly spacecraft such as an X-wing."

"Let me take a guess. You used to fly one of these things?"

"We used to fly them all the time in Beggars Canyon, racing each other to see who was the fastest. It got pretty dangerous at times, especially when you come to a tight spot in the canyon, and your competitor is right next to you. Or, trying to fly through the Stone Needle without damaging your stabilizer."

"So, where are we going?"

"Beggars Canyon."

"I hope we're not racing in the canyon."

"No. There is a lookout where you can see the whole canyon, including the Stone Needle."

Luke let Gaeriel sit for a couple of minutes. The view was spectacular, he had to admit to himself. Beggars Canyon was lit by the light being reflected off the two moons, casting dark shadows onto the sandstone facies of the canyon. The night sky was clear -- thousands of stars could be seen. Off in the distance, nocturnal creatures trumpeted and growled their hunting calls.

Luke walked to Gaeriel and sat down next to her. "I need to tell you something about me," Luke said.

Gaeriel turned to look into his eyes. "I know. You told me over the holovid, remember," she said.

Luke looked off into the distance, thinking of the right way to word his thoughts. "It might frighten you, but you must know the truth." Luke turned toward Gaeriel. "When I was on Bakura, I said that I was present when Darth Vader killed the Emperor, but I also said that I was a prisoner. That is true, but there is more to the story. I turned myself in to Imperial forces on Endor, knowing that I would be turned over to Darth Vader, which is what I wanted to happen. I needed to face him -- to bring him back to the good side. When Vader flung the Emperor into the Death Star's reactor core, he was a different person." Luke paused to take a deep breath. "He became his true self, Anakin Skywalker, my father."

Gaeriel's face turned pale white, shocked by what Luke just told her. Luke could sense the fear and confusion rushing through Gaeriel's thoughts.

"Your father is Darth Vader?"

"Yes," he said looking at the Stone Needle. Luke sensed Gaeriel calming down a bit, and cautiously placed his arm around her shoulders. "You're taking the news rather well."

"Why didn't you tell this news to me while on Bakura?"

"Because I thought it would destroy everything between us, causing more harm and confusion for you. The situation we were in was not the most appropriate time to tell anyone."

"You're right about that. The time would not have been appropriate. Besides, I decided never to leave Bakura again at the time, and why would you have any reason to tell someone you thought you would never see again that Darth Vader's your father."

Luke rubbed her right shoulder.

"You want to know why I told you that I would never leave Bakura again. I would have left with you, but I thought if I did, that one day, you would leave me. I kept on thinking about something I said, about if you loved someone, you could easily hate them. I'll never forget the hurt look in your eyes after I said that. And I thought that my uncle and Eppie needed me more."

"My father did that to his wife -- leaving her to become the servant of the Emperor, to serve the dark side of the Force."

"How did he become Darth Vader?"

"Well, according to my first teacher, Ben Kenobi, the two of them fought, and my father fell into a molten pit. The whole uniform he wore was actually a life-support system."

"How will I know that you won't become what your father became, if I decide to return with you?"

"I did. I became the Emperor's servant, when his resurrection was discovered. I thought that if I found out how my father fell to the dark side, that I could help the Republic. I did fall out of the trap of the Emperor's dark teachings, but I almost destroyed the Republic in the process."

"Luke, I heard vague rumors about your turn, but I didn't think they were true."

"I can't promise you anything about my future, or anyone else's. The future is always in motion. I do know that I care about you, and I would like you to be a part of my life, but I can't guarantee that I won't fall to the dark side again. I don't even know which of my apprentices will fall to the dark side. But, I think in life, we have to take risks just to live."

Gaeriel then lifted her head up, and gazed into Luke's pale blue eyes. Luke hesitantly touched her face, feeling the softness and the warmth of her skin. Gaeriel closed her eyes when Luke began touching her face. Luke lifted her chin, drawing it closer to him, and kissed her, opening himself to the Force and letting the moment last longer than it really did.

"I love you," Luke whispered into Gaeriel's ear.

"I love you, too," Gaeriel said.

Gaeriel woke up the next morning, feeling refreshed, but tired as well. She tossed and turned all night from the nightmares and dreams she had about Luke, about the things he told her the night before. Luke told her everything about his family. Darth Vader being his father. Leia being her sister. He even showed her the disk with his mother on it that he found at Ben's when they returned back to the hotel. She dreamt about her wedding day. She had nightmares about Luke wearing Darth Vader's mask. Sometimes, the dreams and nightmares would mesh together.

She walked out of the bedroom, finding Luke sitting on the small couch. He had a mug of tea sitting on the coffee table, and looking at a hologram Artoo was projecting.

"Did you want some tea, Mistress Gaeriel," Threepio asked.

"Yes. Thank you," she said.

She sat down next to Luke, who leaned over and gave her a peck on her cheek.

"What are you looking at," she asked. Threepio sat the mug of tea in front of Gaeriel.

"I'm looking at the stuff Artoo recorded while we were at Ben's yesterday. I'm going to return there today, and get his belongings packed. There not doing any good just sitting in an abandoned home. I also need to talk to Biggs Darklighter's parents, and tell them exactly what happened to their son. You don't mind if I leave you alone today?"

"No, I was thinking of getting some clothes that wouldn't make me stand out in a crowd."

"I'm not taking Artoo and Threepio, so you can have them for company, and protection. Although, I'm not sure if you can handle Threepio's stories."

Artoo trilled a mechanical sounding laugh.

"I resent that, Master Luke. I'm not much of a storyteller. I would be of some help to Mistress Gaeriel in translation. I am fluent in over six million forms of communication," Threepio said.

"It was a joke, Threepio," Luke said. "I'm going to go. Watch yourself. Anchorhead is not one of the safest places on Tatooine. Then again, I'm not sure where a safe place on Tatooine exists." Luke stood up, and walked to the door. He turned around, and said, "Do you have a blaster?"

"No," Gaeriel said.

He walked back to his bedroom, rummaged through a bag, and came back out into the living room. "Here," he said handing Gaeriel a small blaster, small enough to fit into a pocket. "Just in case." Then he left.

Gaeriel's stomach growed hungrily. "I guess I can go downstairs and get some breakfast in the restaurant," Gaeriel said. "You two stay here."

She walked into the small restaurant, which looked more like a grease spoon diner. The diner wasn't very crowded. The smell made Gaeriel's stomach growl even more, and she found a seat near a small window which looked out to the street. The waitress handed Gaeri a menu, which didn't have many items on it. She decided on the special, after glancing around at what the other people ordered.

Gaeriel watched the people in the diner, their facial expressions, what they were saying to their dining partners. Then she noticed that Padme' was sitting alone on the other side of the diner. Gaeriel got up out of her chair, and walked to Padme''s table.

"Hello," Gaeriel said.

"Hello," Padme' said as she spooned some food into her mouth.

"I noticed you were sitting alone. I'm here by myself as well."

"What happened to your husband?" She spooned some more food into her mouth.

"Luke? No, he's not my husband. He had some things to take care of. May I sit down?"

"Might as well."

"Luke feels like he knows you, but can't seem to remember where he has met you."

"Don't waste your time, do you? What do you expect from a Jedi. I'd watch yourself if I were you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I was married to a Jedi, a long time ago. He left me. They can be dangerous and can hurt your feelings, not realizing what they have done."

"I know the risks. Luke told me about all of the risks last night. Mostly about how his father left his mother and how he was separated from his mother and sister soon after he and his sister were born."

Padme' looked up from her plate. "Sounds like my story."

Gaeriel looked closely at Padme', especially the eyes. She put two and two together. Gaeriel whispered, "That's why you were out at the Lars homestead yesterday. You were looking for your son. Luke is your son."

"Shh. You have to keep that to yourself. My daughter thought I died years ago. My son never knew me. You can't tell this to anyone. I came here to talk to Owen and Beru about Luke's life, but that will never happen. I've known about what became of Luke through the news reports, but I wanted to find out what he was like while growing up, about the things I missed because I had to go into hiding."

"I don't know if I can keep this from Luke. He says he can sense my thoughts, even from a great distance."

"He has that strong a connection to you," Padme' said, surprised.

"Yes."

"Anakin never had that strong of a connection to me. Look, you have to try to keep this a secret. I have to tell my daughter first. I fear if Luke found out first, he would tell Leia, and she would be very angry at me. Please promise you won't tell him."

Gaeriel reluctantly said, "Okay."

"I think the waitress has placed your food on your table." Padme' scooped

some food into her mouth.

"I guess I'll see you later," Gaeriel said as she stood up. She returned to her table, stared out the window, while eating her breakfast. Is it right for me to keep this news secret from Luke, she asked herself.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 -- Time To Leave Tatooine

Pollard paced nervously, standing guard outside Docking Bay 94. He wiped a stream of sweat off of his forehead. It was only dawn on this desert planet, and to Pollard, it already felt like midday.

Pollard heard a noise and jumped back right into the wall. Only the door to the bay opening, he told himself. Teitrak stepped out with her tool case in hand. "Are you finished," Pollard said angrily.

"Yea. Shit, Pollard, you're sweating like a Gammorean pig. Just a little nervous," Teitrak said.

"I don't like this. Can we get out of here?"

"Fine, but I want to find out where this Senator and Jedi are on this planet. Thought it might be fun."

"Fun? You're just as crazy as Zithtral."

"We get aboard the next public transport to the next town, ask some people if they've seen them, find out where they're staying, and take a look."

"For the plans."

"Yea, which you couldn't even get out of that woman you killed."

"Don't remind me, but at least I found out where Senator Captison is."

The two of them walked to the public transport area in Mos Eisley, and catched the first transport out of town.

Gaeirel returned to the room, thinking about the conversation she had with Padme'. She wanted to talk more with Padme', but the woman disappeared while Gaeriel ate her breakfast. She sat down on the couch, staring at the wall, and fingered the pendant on her necklace, the half-black, half-white enameled ring of the Cosmic Balance.

Threepio walked into the room from Luke's room with Artoo following him like a little puppy. "Mistress Gaeriel, is there something wrong," Threepio asked.

"What?" She let the pendant drop back into her shirt. "Sorry, I was just thinking about something," she said. "Threepio, if someone told you a secret about someone you cared deeply about but promised not to tell it to him, would you do tell him anyway? It's not anything dangerous, not something harmful, but could be emotionally damaging. The strange thing is, I think it's actually good news, but this person I was told this secret thinks it could damage more people if I told him."

"Mistress Gaeriel, if this 'him' is Master Luke, I would think there would be no way to hide a secret from him. He knows when someone is distressed. I think you have to decide what to do yourself," Threepio said.

"I know. I just wanted some advise. Another question, Threepio. Does Luke ever talk about his mother?"

"Not to me. He might with Mistress Leia. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering, that's all. What time is it?" She looked at her chrono. "It's almost noon. Let's get out of here. Besides, I want to get some clothes that won't make me look like a senator, non-conspicuous."

Gaeriel, Threepio, and Artoo walked out of the hotel, and onto the streets of the small town of Anchorhead. Gaeriel patted her pocket, making sure that tiny blaster Luke gave her was there.

Pollard and Teitrak arrived at the first transport stop. The two of them got off the transport, and took a brief look around.

"So, what's the name of this town," Pollard asked.

Teitrak pulled out the data map pad she bought from a merchant in Mos Eisley. "Anchorhead. Not much here. A power station named Tosche Station. A hotel. Some stores. Trading establishments," Teitrak said.

"Makes the search easy, if she's even here. Where do you want to start?"

"What about the hotel? If she's there, I'll find out. I'm good at those things."

Pollard gave her a dirty look, then slumped his shoulders. As he walked, he played with the sand, tossing it to either side of his feet.

Padme' rang the little bell at the front desk of the hotel. The clerk came out promptly, but in a dirty uniform. "May I help you," he said rudely.

"Yes. I'd like to check out today. It seems that I have to cut my vacation short," Padme' said.

"It's almost noon, lady. That's cutting it a little too close to check-out, don't you think? What room number are you in?"

"Room 19."

The clerk went into the back room. Padme' heard bits and pieces of the arguement the clerk had with his manager. Then the clerk came back out. "Sure, we can let you check out early," the clerk said with a fake smile plastered to his face.

"Thank you. I also need to have something given to a guest who's staying here, and I only know her first name, but I do know her companion's last name." She pulled out of her pocket a gold ring with opal and diamond interlaced within the ring. She didn't show it to the clerk yet. "Could you see if there is a guest by the last name of Skywalker staying here?"

"Certainly." The clerk looked in the data register. "Yes, I do have a Luke Skywalker staying here."

"This is for Gaeriel, who's with that party." She handed the ring to the clerk, along with a note and a hundred credit script. "Make sure she gets this."

Padme' walked out of the hotel after settling her bill, and practically ran into two people. "Sorry," she said, and began to walk off, but the male stopped her.

He pulled out a data pad. "Have you seen this woman," he asked.

Padme' held her ground and said, "No. I've never seen her."

"See, I told you this was a waste of time," the male said.

"Let's keep looking. This planet's not that populated. Someone is bound to have seen her. Let's try that power station," the alien woman said. The two of them walked off.

Padme' watched them walk down the street until she saw them walk into Tosche Station. Padme' went back into the hotel, and rang the bell at the front desk.

"Aw, man. What is it this time," the clerk asked.

Padme' was busy entering the information onto a data pad. "Give this data pad to Luke Skywalker's female companion." She pulled out another hundred credit script and handed it to the clerk along with the data pad. "This is for your troubles." Then she stormed out of the hotel.

Pollard and Teitrak returned to the hotel, after finding out that Luke Skywalker was staying at the hotel, and that some of the people at the power station did recognize Senator Captison. "That woman must have lied to us," Pollard said.

"Geez, I figured that out when we started talking to her," Teitrak said. Teitrak walked up to the front desk and rang the bell.

"Can't a man watch the races in peace," the clerk yelled as he walked out of the back room. "Sorry, I thought you were someone else. Can I help you?"

"Yea, we're looking for this woman. Have you seen her," Pollard asked as he showed the clerk the data pad.

"She has a medical condition, and we need to deliver these insulin packets to her," Teitrak added, pulling out packets of gel out of her pocket.

"Yea, she's staying here. Do you want me to deliver those to her," the clerk asked.

"No, I think it would be better if you told us her room number," Pollard said as he pulled out a blaster and pointed it at the clerk.

Nervously, the clerk divulged the room number to Pollard and Teitrak. Teitrak quickly ran up the stairs. Pollard put the blaster back in it's hidden holster, and followed Teitrak up the stairs.

By the time he reached the room, Teitrak was already inside, rummaging through one of the bedrooms. Pollard went into the other one. Obviously, Pollard walked into the Jedi's room because of the silk boxer shorts laying on the bed. He walked out, and ran into Teitrak. "Is these what Zithtral wants," she asked, holding up a pair of goggles.

"Yep. Let's get off this planet now. That clerk could have told the authorities about us by now," Pollard said. The two of them opened the window in the bedroom, and shimmied down the side of the building. Then they walked to the transport area, and took the next transport back to Mos Eisley.

Gaeriel returned to the hotel after her shopping excursion in town. It really wasn't much of a shopping excursion though. She did buy a couple of dresses, but there wasn't much choice in the colors she had to choose from. She preferred vibrant yet calming colors, not these natural earthy colors, but she did like the one rust colored dress, she had to admit.

The clerk called her to the desk. Gaeriel walked to the desk, with Threepio and Artoo following closely behind. "I have some stuff for you," the clerk said. He handed her three items: a ring, a note, and a data pad. He kept his hand palm side up towards her.

Gaeriel reluctantly pulled out a ten credit script and handed it to the clerk.

"Your friend's a bigger tipper," The clerk said, and walked back into the back room.

Gaeriel walked upstairs, looking at the ring, noticing that it was a woman's ring, with opal and diamond interlaced within the band. Then she looked at the note, and muttered the contents of the note. "This ring was mine. I want you to have it. Padme'." Why would she give me a ring, Gaeriel asked herself.

She reached the front door and opened it. Luke was standing there in the middle of the room with his eyes closed.

Gaeriel noticed the room was in complete shambles. "What happened, Luke," she asked.

Luke opened his eyes. "Someone broke into our room. Luckily, you weren't here because I sense they were looking for you. But they found something else instead, something important to them," Luke said.

"I guess I should see what is missing in my belongings." She walked into her room and saw the contents of her overnight bag scattered all over the bed. One item was missing -- the virtual goggles. She stored items of importance into the goggles, and now they were stolen. She shouted, "They stole my virtual goggles, Luke."

Luke ran into the room. "What are virtual goggles?"

"Eppie made them for me. I keep lots of things on them. It's like having a computer right in front of your eyes without people even knowing you're looking at a computer. Most of the stuff on the goggles is useless to anyone, but I did put the plans to that medical device on the goggles for safe keeping. I still don't understand how a medical device is supposed to cause havoc for the Jedi order."

Gaeriel then noticed the data pad in her hand. She activated it, and read the contents to herself. "Luke, Padme' says a man and an alien woman were looking for me."

"Well, I guess it's time to leave Tatooine. Get packed. We'll leave at dusk."

Gaeriel just stood there, fondled the ring in her pocket, and knew that Luke needed to be told the truth about Padme', and once they got off this planet, she would tell Luke.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 -- Crash Landing

BOOM!

The whole shuttle began to shake violently. Hyperdrive sirens and emergency sirens went off simultaneously. The explosion knocked out the hyperdrive coils and the main computer, causing the ship to jump back into real space. Luke could sense Gaeriel's terror in what was about to happen -- they were going to crash through a purplish-blue atmosphere of a planet. Luke sent Artoo a message through a comlink to fly to Coruscant and get help from Leia. He would have used the transponder, but that wasn't functioning, along with all the other computers functions. To save both of their lives, along with Threepio, Luke had to use the Force to land the shuttle.

"Luke, I'm getting sick to my stomach," Gaeriel said, sitting in the co-pilot's seat.

"I'm trying to keep the ship as steady as possible. We have to land -- we have no other choice," Luke said.

Gaeriel leaned to her right and threw up. She finally sat back up after cleaning her face. "Obviously someone's doing a really good job in trying to kill me."

"Well, you're not going to get killed." Luke hoped that she wasn't going to get killed. He had that dream again about walking into a deserted building and finding a body in pieces on the floor, cauterized.

Suddenly, the ship entered the atmosphere. Luke concentrated on keeping the ship as stable as possible. Gaeriel's head was focused on the planet. Luke felt the horror of Gaeriel's thoughts along whit her feelings about the beauty of the planet. It was beautiful, Luke thought. Mountains capped with snow. Deserts with black and white sands. Oceans of crystal clear turquoise. Forests plush with all kinds of plants.

Luke sensed a city near the mountains. He knew to land near it, but not too near, because he knew he would have to crash-land this ship. Just west of that tall mountain next to the black desert felt like a good spot to land, he thought. The city was on the other side of the mountain, half-way to the top. Now, he concentrated in landing the shuttle without risking the lives of those on board, hopefully keeping the shuttle in one piece in the process.

"Hang on, Gaeri, and strap in," Luke said. He leaned towards the chair behind Gaeriel, switching off Threepio. The droid wasn't helping -- his complaints about this landing started to make Luke nervous.

The desert approached rapidly. The ship crashed into the sand, tumbled several times, and came to an abrupt stop.

The last thing Luke remembered seeing was the black sand desert fast approaching when the shuttle crashed. Luke woke up, shook his head and took a look out the front window -- black sand surrounded them.

He then turned to Gaeriel. She had a gash on her forehead -- luckily it stopped bleeding, he said to himself as he touched the wound. "Gaeri," he whispered, "Gaeriel?" Gaeriel wasn't waking up anytime soon. He knew that, but he wanted to hear how she felt from her, in her own voice, instead of her pain and aches she emanated through the Force.

He unstrapped himself and felt slight pain in his left knee. He looked down at the knee and noticed the black pants were ripped in the left knee. Blood coagulated around the wound, but he could see a piece of glass sticking out of the wound. He pulled it out -- fresh blood slowly flowed in its place. He used the Force to begin healing himself and decided to stand up and find out what kind of shape Threepio was in.

Threepio was in excellent shape, and he was still quiet. Luke found the activator switch and turned Threepio back on.

"Master Luke! Why did you shut me off? Where are we," Threepio asked.

"We're on the planet, whatever planet this is. I don't think this ship is ever going to fly again," Luke said.

"Where is Mistress Gaeriel?"

"She's unconscious. It looks like she hit her head on the console. Be quiet and let her sleep."

Luke walked out of the cockpit, and began to look at the damage within the ship. He pulled the bulkheads near the hyperdrive units. He looked carefully and reached a half a meter into the shards of metal, pulling out a corner of a metal box with wires sticking out of it. He felt around further, and found more shards of metal with wires attached.

Suddenly, Gaeriel screamed in pain.

Luke ran back into the cockpit and sat back down in the pilot's seat.

"Ow! My head hurts," she said. She felt her head where the blood had coagulated over the gash. "Yuck."

"How are you feeling," Luke asked. He knew she was in pain, but he still wanted to hear her say how she felt.

"Well, besides my head hurting, my neck and leg also hurts," she said turning slowly to face Luke. She noticed Luke's wound. "Your bleeding," she said as she pointed to his knee.

"A piece of glass got jammed into my knee." He felt the wound on Gaeri's head. "Luckily, this wound has begun to heal. Probably hit your head on the console. You're lucky you have a hard head. Let me see your leg."

She turned the chair and carefully lifted her skirt, feeling blood flow from a wound on her leg where the blood dried onto the skirt, and saw a twelve centimeter gash slowly bleeding from her left calf. "Oh, great," she said.

"Keep your leg as still as possible," he told Gaeriel. He turned to Threepio. "Threepio, go into the back and get the medipak."

"Where are we," Gaeriel asked. "What planet are we on?"

"I don't know. I tried to get the sensors up, but I couldn't. They were fried when the coils blew. The computer was destroyed. I think someone sabotaged the ship."

"Are you trying to tell me that you don't even know what planet we're on?"

"Yes, but I do know there is a city on the other side of this mountain, because I felt the presense of others. We crashed in the desert in front of the mountain."

Threepio entered the cockpit carrying the medipak, handing it to Luke. "I also brought Mistress Gaeriel's blanket," the golden droid said.

Luke pulled out a disinfectant pad and rubbed it gently on Gaeri's wound. Then, he slapped a strip of synth-flesh onto the gash. "Do you want a painkiller," he asked.

"Yea, but I thought you were going to use the Force to heal the wound," she joked.

He smiled. He handed her a painkiller, and said, "If it wasn't for the Force, we would not be alive, so in a way, I did use the Force to heal the wound."

"Master Luke, how are we going to get out of here," Threepio asked.

"Go see if the top hatch is clear, Threepio. Then pack our stuff into some backpacks, please," said Luke. He disinfected the gash on Gaeriel's forehead and placed a piece of synth-flesh on it as well. "Try to stand up."

Gaeriel stood up slowly, almost losing her balance, but found it again. She took one cautious step, then proceeded to walk around the cockpit. "Doesn't hurt too much. What about you?"

Luke stood up, put his left foot on the navigator chair, and slapped a piece of synth-flesh on his knee. "I think that takes care of the first aid." He handed Gaeriel her blanket.

"I was looking forward to going to Coruscant. At least the past four days on this shuttle were productive."

"I know," Luke said as he leaned to kiss her. They spent most of their time in hyperspace talking about everything, getting to know each other all over again.

The only thing Gaeriel had not told Luke was that Padme' was his mother, but she hoped she would find the right moment to tell him. She was hoping it would be on Coruscant, but that was out of the question now.

Threepio came back into the cockpit with three backpacks and four cantinas of water. He also had Luke's black Jedi robe. "Master Luke, I left some room in one of the packs for Mistress Gaeriel's blanket," said Threepio as he handed Luke his Jedi robe. "I couldn't find out if the top hatch was clear."

"That's okay. I can get it open."

"Good," Gaeri said as she put the medipak and her blanket in her pack, the pulled it over her shoulders. "I want to get out of here. The air's getting very stale."

Luke put one of the remaining packs on Threepio, then put the other one on his own shoulders. He led Gaeriel and Threepio to the top hatch, which was located near the rear of the ship. An ordinary person would have difficulty opening it without the systems on-line, but not Luke. He used the Force to open the hatch. Black sand began to pore into the ship. Finally, light began to beam through the hole. Luke leaped through the hole and landed on the ship's hull with a gentle thud. He took a glance around. Landed closer to the stream than I thought, he said to himself. "You have to see the view, Gaeriel."

"Well, help me up."

"Threepio's first." He used the Force to lift Threepio through the hatch and onto the hull, with a soft metallic thud. Luke laid down, poked his head through the hatch, and reached his hands toward Gaeriel. "Grab my hands. I'll pull you up."

Gaeriel grabbed his hands, and was yanked up very quickly, landing in Luke's arms. "Thanks." Gaeriel glanced around. She spotted the tall mountain, pointed to it, and said, "Is that where we are heading?"

"Yes. We should just follow the river up the mountain for a couple of days. Let's go. It looks like high noon."

Threepio took that to proceed forward, and began walking toward the stream. He didn't even jump off the hull of the ship, even if he could jump. The top of the ship and the sand were at the same level, so Threepio just simply walked straight off the ship and right onto the desert.

"Luke," Gaeriel said as Luke turned around, "I love you."

He walked back to her. "I know. I love you, too." He gave her a delicate kiss. "Come on. You'll do fine."

The two of them started walking, catching up to Threepio quickly.

"Master Luke, your landing was worse than Master Han's when he landed on Dathomir," Threepio said.

"But I didn't kidnap Gaeriel, like Han did to Leia," Luke said.

"Han kidnapped Leia," Gaeriel said, with a slight giggle in her voice.

"Mistress Gaeriel, it all started when Leia received a large gift from the Hapes sector, including . . ."

Zithtral watch his monitors of the recording from the spy satellites, watching a shuttle crash into the atmosphere and onto the planet. Pollard and Zithtral's first wife, Teitrak, observed the monitors while standing directly behind Zithtral. The three of them watched the tapes for hours, until they saw three beings emerge from the top of the barely visible shuttle.

Zithtral, remaining his normal orange coloring, turned his chair around to face them. "Excellent job, Teitrak," he said.

"Well, I am the best," Teitrak said, turning a slight peach color.

"Hey, what about me," Pollard asked, "don't I get any credit?"

"Why should you? You did fowl up this whole thing in the first place. Now you want credit for Teitrak correcting your mistakes. Fool," Zithtral said.

"Fine. I don't want any of your praise. So, Teitrak, did you hand the goggles

to Zithtral yet," Pollard said, knowing full well she hadn't handed the goggles to her husband. He just wanted to see her get into trouble.

Teitrak turned a tomato red and lunged for Pollard's throat, grasping it with both hands, tightening them around his neck, causing Pollard to gasp for air.

Zithtral stood up, and knocked Teitrak off of Pollard, sending her clear across the room. Zithtral was angry, showing some red in his coloring, but not the tomato red that Teitrak was showing. Obviously, he wasn't as angry as Teitrak. He walked up to his wife slowly, but in power mode, with shoulders square, back ridged, and a one meter gait. He picked her up by her belt with one hand, lifting her several meters off the floor. "Hand over the goggles," he said.

Teitrak turned a yellow color, and said, "They're in my pouch."

Zithtral opened her beltpouch with his free hand, grabbed the goggles, and let Teitrak drop to the floor. Zithtral put them on, but nothing happened when he tried to activate them. "Pollard, how do you activate these?"

"I think only Senator Captison is the only person that can activate them, sir. But, I do think I could retreive the information on them without the activation of the goggles. It's just like any other computer, and all I need to do is slice the codes. Should be easy for me, after all, I did work with the senator."

"Great," Zithtral said as he tossed the goggles to Pollard. "You might just do some good. About damn time."

Pollard ran out of the room.

"Now, as for my traitor of a wife. You will die in the same fashion as my second wife," Zithtral said.

"No, Zithtral! You can't do that to me. I thought you . . ."

Too late. Zithtral plunged a three-bladed vibroknife into her heart, and licked the blood off of each blade, savoring the sweet taste on his immense tongue.

Luke, Gaeriel, and Threepio followed the river through a dense forest of blue-green pines. The hike up the mountain wasn't as tough as Gaeriel thought it would be. Her leg was beginning to ache again, and found a fallen log to rest on. She put her left leg up, pulling her skirt to knee-level, and taking a look at the wound. She thought it was bleeding, but she was wrong. With a sigh of relief, she took off her backpack and pulled out the medipak, taking another painkiller without water. We should be setting up camp soon, she thought. She got off the log and continued walking. She couldn't see Luke and Threepio up the path. Probably didn't see me stop, she thought, but at least the forest is starting to thin out.

About five minutes later, she spotted Luke near a waterfall, cascading down the side of a granite wall. She looked around, noticing that they were in a U-shaped valley, surrounded by granite cliffs as high as 4000 meters. And she soon realized that the waterfall Luke stood in front of was not the only waterfall in the valley. She could count four from where she currently stood. The valley was longer than it was wide, but its width was as long as the cliffs were tall. That impressed Gaeriel. She remembered some of her general studies in college about geology, and knew this valley was formed by a glacier.

She walked to Luke, who just stood there on top a granodiorite boulder, letting the water from the mist of the waterfall sprinkle his face.

He opened his eyes, seeing Gaeriel standing next to him. He felt her approach him earlier. "Beautiful, isn't it," he said.

"That's one of the many words to describe this valley," Gaeriel said.

"I thought we could set up camp here."

"I agree. Where's Threepio?"

"Over there." He pointed to a golden droid in the forest, trying its best to stay away from the mist. "I think he's afraid of water."

"Well, I would be to, if I were a droid. Probably knows he could rust."

Luke put his arms around Gaeriel.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 -- Making Love Out Of Nothing At All

Night fell on the unknown planet. The crescent moon shined brightly against the star sprinkled sky, and Threepio was tempting to prepare dinner over a portable propane stove for Gaeriel and Luke. Gaeriel sat near the campfire, reading a book in the flames light, along with the unnatural light from a lightstick. She glanced up, and smirked at Threepio's cooking techniques, which she thought was funny, but she didn't want the droid to know that. Luke was off several meters away, practicing his lightsaber parries and slashes. Gaeriel observed the green-white saber slash through the air, hearing the errie sound the saber made as it moved through the air.

Luke closed down the lightsaber, and walked back to the campfire, sitting next to Gaeriel. "Dinner ready yet, Threepio," Luke asked.

Gaeriel giggled softly.

"What's so funny," Luke whispered to Gaeriel.

"Sorry," she said trying not to laugh too loud. "Threepio's cooking techniques are . . . unique."

Threepio lifted the pot off the tiny stove, and put the contents on two aluminum plates. He handed Gaeriel a plate, then Luke. "I do not know if the food is cooked properly, Master Luke. I might be made to slightly resemble a human, but I cannot taste food like a human. Therefore, I do not know if the food is spiced right or if the food is throughly cooked," Threepio said.

"Don't worry about it, Threepio. It's only rations, and they are made to be pre-cooked. All you have to do is reheat the food," Luke said as he grabbed a fork in his left hand, cutting a piece of meat, and put it in his mouth.

Gaeriel just stared at her food. "I can't eat this," she said.

"Why not?"

"Look at this. This compartment of goop is infecting this compartment of meat!"

"Infecting?"

"Okay, oozing. But I'm not going to eat this."

"It's actually pretty good -- for rations."

"Fine. I'll eat it, but I'm not going to like it." She cut the piece of meat, and swallowed it very quickly, trying not to have the meat touch her taste buds on her tongue.

After finishing her food very quickly, Gaeriel stood up and stretched. "I'm going to go take a bath in that spring," she said. She grabbed the lightstick, and walked away.

Luke kept on eating.

Gaeriel took off her shoes, glad to do so, and stuck her foot in the spring. Surprisingly, the water was warm to her touch, and proceeded to remove the rest of her clothes. The night air was slightly chilly, causing goose pimples to form on every part of her naked body. She quickly walked into the warm water of the spring.

Once in the water, Gaeriel swam around. She liked to swim, but just never had the time to do it anymore. She played and splashed the water everywhere. She never swam naked in her life, and the feeling of the water carressing her body felt great and exhilarating. She kept on swimming, looking up at the night sky lighting up the valley.

Luke sat next to the fire, holding Gaeriel's blanket. She forgot to take it with her. She would be cold when she stepped out of the water, Luke thought. I should go take it to her. He stood up, and walked to the spring.

Luke placed the blanket on the ground, next to the lightstick Gaeriel took. The light brightly shined over the surface of the spring, and Luke could see Gaeriel swimming on the opposite side of the spring. He didn't know if she could see him, though. She probably wanted her privacy. He then heard Gaeriel recite a poem.

The mountains so tall

With trees of different kinds

Covered with white snow

Falling from the darkened sky

Landing on the fragile leaves.

Luke smiled, and said, "That was beautiful. Did you write it?"

Luke's voice startled Gaeriel. "I didn't even know you were there," she said.

"Sorry."

"No, I didn't write the poem. My mother did. Can you see anything from where you're standing?"

"Not really."

Luke heard Threepio coming towards him. "Master Luke, what would you like me to do with the dishes," Threepio asked.

Luke didn't answer the question. He simply turned off the golden droid. "Now, we can have some privacy," he yelled to Gaeriel.

"Why don't you join me. The water is quite warm," she said seductively.

Luke stepped out of his clothes, except for the silk boxers he was wearing, and jumped into the water.

Gaeriel swam towards him. "The boxers, too, Luke."

Luke pulled off his boxers, and flung them onto the beach.

Gaeriel swam closer to Luke, and Luke noticed that she wasn't wearing anything either. She stopped several feet from him. "Doesn't this feel great?"

"It feels strange," Luke said, embarrassed.

"Makes me feel like a kid again. Young and alive and free." She swam closer.

Luke saw her erect nipples through the water, and turned away from her. "Don't come any closer."

Gaeriel stopped. "Why?"

"I don't know."

She touched Luke's bare shoulder. "Luke, please turn around."

Luke turned around to see Gaeriel directly in front of Luke.

Gaeriel kissed Luke passionately, savoring the softness and warmth of his lips. He pulled her closer to his naked body, feeling her breasts pressing against his chest. He then placed his left hand on her right breast, caressing it gently, delicately rubbing the erect nipple. She closed her eyes, moaning softly to his touching. Luke kissed her exposed shoulder, her neck, her lips, sending shivers down her spine. Gaeriel moved her hand down Luke's chest, moved her hand behind Luke, placing it on Luke's nicely rounded butt. The two of them moved closer to the shore, still holding onto each other, feeling each other. Gaeriel tripped on a rock, causing Luke to fall along with her. She landed on top of Luke. The shallow water splashed over their naked bodies. She kissed him again, until Luke turned the two of them over, with him on top. She looked into his delicate blue eyes, with the lyrics of a song running through her head.

The sun of this planet Gaeriel and Luke didn't know the name of, rose over the eastern cliffs of the valley, shining onto the valley floor below. Gaeriel's head laid on Luke's chest. The two of them were rapped inside Gaeriel's blanket, keeping themselves warm. Luke woke up, stroking Gaeriel's reddish brown hair. He turned his head, looking at the frozen golden droid standing several meters away.

"Don't you think you should turn Threepio back on," Gaeriel whispered.

"Yeah, I guess I should," Luke said. Luke grabbed his boxer shorts, slipped them on while still wrapped in the blanket, and wiggled himself out of the blanket, and stood up. He grabbed his pants, and slipped them on.

Gaeriel grabbed her shirt, pulled it over head, then grabbed her skirt, and slipped it on. "Don't turn him on yet. I want to go back to camp and put on some fresh clothes." She stood up, letting the blanket fall to the ground, and walked back to camp.

Luke finished dressing before turning back on Threepio.

"Master Luke, you never answered my question," the golden droid said.

Remembering the question Threepio asked him the night before, he replied, "I'll take care of the dishes. Just get our stuff packed. We have a long walk to this city, which I sense is a day's walk from here."

"Pardon me, but shouldn't it be nighttime?"

Luke just smiled.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 -- Why Didn't You Tell Me?

Wedge Antilles slept in his quarters back on Coruscant, after arriving in the dead of night, if there was such a thing on Coruscant. He just returned from a short trip to Tatooine, hoping to find Luke, but missed him by one day, according to the people at Tosche Station. The communit rang for his attention, and Wedge jumped out of the covers to answer it, out of the habit of the days when he flew X-wings. Groggily, he tapped the answer button.

Chief of State Princess Leia Organa-Solo appeared on the monitor. "Sorry to disturb you, Wedge, but I received some disturbing news, and I thought you would want to be told about it since it concerns Luke. Come down to my office as soon as you can," Leia said.

"Sure," Wedge said, yawning.

Leia cut off transmission.

Wedge grabbed a pair of pants that were hanging on the back of a chair and put them on. Then he walked to the closet, and pulled out a turquoise silk shirt, and put it on, tucking in into the pants. Wedge received the shirt from Luke. He barely wore it, except when he went out in public as Wedge Antilles, a normal everyday person, instead of General Antilles of the New Republic. He gave his wife, who was still sleeping, a peck on the cheek, and left for Leia's office.

Luke glanced over at his future wife, who was walking next to him, and felt conflict coming from her feelings she emanated through the Force. He noticed Gaeriel had her hands in her pockets, moving them around like she was nervous. She was thinking about something, Luke knew that much. He began to worry about her, she was very quiet when they started the trek to this city Luke felt, and she remained quiet for most of the day. Luke opened himself to the Force. I feel you now, I'm standing beside you, do you here me calling?

Gaeriel spoke up from his right, "Luke, didn't you find it odd that Padme' visited your Aunt and Uncle's farm the same day that we did?" She still had her hands in her pockets.

Luke felt relieved Gaeriel was still talking to him. Did she actually hear me through the Force? "She felt so familiar, yet a complete stranger. I don't know."

She stopped walking and pulled out the ring Padme' gave her, and handed it to Luke. "Does this look familiar?"

Luke halted, examining the opal and diamond band. "Where did you get this?"

"Padme' gave it to me."

Luke recognized the ring, but not from the brief encounter with the mysterious Padme'. The hologram of his mother -- that's where he's seen this ring. He saw his mother wearing it in the message disk she left in Ben's care. "This is my mother's. Where did Padme' get this ring?"

"Luke, the ring is Padme's. She is your mother. She told me not to tell you, but I couldn't do that to you. I chatted with her at breakfast. She said something about once being married to a Jedi, and that I should watch myself. I told her I know the risks, and told her what you told me the night before, about how you and Leia were separated at birth. She said that it sounded like her story. Luke, I'm not strong in the Force like you, but I looked right into her eyes, and saw the truth and the pain of this woman." She looked down at her scruffy boots. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you this earlier. I didn't know how to tell you." She looked back up into those delicate blue eyes of Luke's. "I hope you're not mad at me."

Luke continued fingering the ring, feeling the intricacy and the weight of it, but most of all, the residue of the presence of his mother's finger inside the ring. It was Padme''s life presence he felt on the ring, and it felt good to his touch. Luke looked at Gaeriel, "I'm not mad, Gaeri. How can I be? You obviously had to balance your thoughts about this, and you chose the path you thought correct, whether the news hurt me emotionally or not. I'm just glad you're still talking to me. You've been so quiet since this morning. You're also thinking about what happened last night."

She smiled, "Yes."

So am I, Luke thought. Luke held Gaeriel in his arms, holding her close and tightly, feeling the individual beats of her heart resonate through his body.

Gaeriel looked up at Luke's dimpled chin. "Luke, tell me more about Callista."

Callista, a woman from his past, a woman he once loved. The memories still remained strong for this Jedi. Three years had past since those events, and they were still fresh in his mind. He reflected back then, remembering when he told Callista about his past, about Bakura and Gaeriel. Those memories of Gaeriel were fresh in his mind back then, and now he was telling Gaeriel about Callista -- everything about Callista.

Luke took Gaeriel's hand, and with Threepio following, continued walking, talking about the past, and about the future.

Luke felt two small presences, strong in the Force, very nearby.

Wedge walked into Leia's office, surprised not to see all of Luke's friends at this informal meeting. Han and Leia were there, of course, but where was Lando. And how did Artoo-Detoo get here? Wasn't he with Luke? Something strange is going on, Wedge thought.

"What's Luke's R2 unit doing here," Wedge asked. "What's going on?" Wedge took a seat in front of Leia's desk.

Han sat on her desk, with his feet touching the floor, swinging them back and forth. "It seems Luke had to crash land on a planet. His hyperdrive blew out while in hyperspace, throwing him back into normal space. The kid doesn't even know what planet he's on. Seems the main computer also blew in the explosion," Han said.

"The planet's name is Farallon, that is if Artoo's coordinates are accurate," Leia interrupted.

The astromech droid gave an electronic razzberry in reply.

Leia continued, "The message says he's in some sort of danger, but didn't give any details. Wedge, you were the last one to talk to Luke before he left for Tatooine. Do you know anything about this?"

Wedge played with a stray string on the repulsor chair. "I know more about this than the two of you. Remember I went to Bakura for the New Republic. I should have returned several days ago from that trip, but I went to Tatooine in search for Luke." He breathed deeply, and continued. "Luke asked me to visit a couple of friends while on Bakura. One of those was Senator Gaeriel Captison. When I went to see her, she told me she contacted Luke about some danger she was in, and it also involved the Jedi Knights. She said Luke asked her to accompany him to Tatooine, and she accepted."

Leia and Han looked at each other thinking the same thing. Leia spoke, "Gaeriel is with Luke?"

"Yes. And her friend Eppie Belden was murdered because someone was searching for Gaeriel's whereabouts, and succeeded. That's when I decided to go to Tatooine, to warn Luke and Gaeriel, and help them get out of danger. Han, Leia, we have to find them on Farallon. I found out more about this murderer, Pollard Tevloor, and you're not going to like this." Wedge reached inside his back pants pocket, and pulled out a data pad.

Han reached for the pad, handed to Leia, who read its contents out loud. "Wedge, why didn't you give this to us earlier?"

"I just got back from Tatooine three hours ago. I wanted to get some rest, but from the look on both of your faces, I'm not going to get any."

"You will while we're on course to Farallon. You'll like the bunks on the _Falcon_. Will remind you about those days as an X-wing pilot, Wedge," Han said.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Han. Just make sure everyone comes back alive. From what I read about this Mr. Tevloor, you two need to watch yourselves, and don't let those Corellian tempers get the two of you in trouble. I wish I could go with you, but I have duties," Leia said.

"So, when do we leave," Wedge yawned.

"Chewie has the _Falcon_ fine-tuned and ready to go," Han said.

Padme' stood outside the door of her old friend, from a lifetime ago. She knew her friend changed in the years that have past since they said goodbye. She became a strong governmental figure, a leader, a founder. Padme' only hoped Mon Mothma remembered her. She rang the bell to Mon Mothma's stateroom.

Mon Mothma sat by her window, drinking a cup of tea, watching the birds fly by like she did every morning. Remaining in her chair, she called the guest in.

Padme' thought the woman had confidence in her visitors. She shrugged her shoulders, and let herself in.

Mon Mothma, still looking out the window, spoke to the unseen guest, "Can I

help you?"

"You can help me talk to Leia, old friend."

Abruptly, Mon Mothma turned her chair quickly around. "Lady Arcadia. It's been a long time. And too long to keep a secret hidden." She graciously stood up, and walked to her friend. "I see you've gone grey."

"And I see you dye yours." She placed a hand on Mon Mothma's shoulder. "I've come to tell Leia the truth, and I need your help. You're the only one still alive that knows the whole story, and I need you there when I tell her."

"I'm not the only one, Padme'. Garm Bel Iblis is alive, too. He hasn't told Leia, either. But, I'm glad you've finally come out of hiding. It's long overdue. The Empire is not as strong a threat as they once were. The New Republic grows everyday thanks to Leia. She's an excellent leader -- she has a lot of you in her. I can be present when you tell Leia that you are your mother, but only for support -- nothing more."

"I assume Luke told Leia that they are twins." Gaeriel hinted about the relationship during their brief talk back on Tatooine.

"She's known that for years. And she also knows that Darth Vader was her father. That I did not know until it was announced in the senate, when Luke stood there, with Leia at his side, and told us that Anakin Skywalker, his father, was Darth Vader, and that Leia is his twin sister. I understood at that moment exactly why you went into hiding." Mon Mothma held her friend's hand, and said, "Do you want to go meet your grandchildren?"

"Very much."

Leia remained in bed, restless and disturbed. She hugged Han's pillow tightly, wishing he was next to her, but he went with Wedge to find Luke and Gaeriel. That message Artoo delivered haunted her thoughts, causing her not to concentrate on her diplomatic duties for today. And from Wedge's report about Pollard Tevloor, she knew Luke was in serious danger. She could feel it.

Three small hands tapped at her door.

"Come in, kids," she said as she sat up.

Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin jumped on the bed. If Han was present, the kids would have pounced on him.

"Where's daddy," Jaina asked.

"I heard Artoo earlier this morning," Jacen said.

Anakin sat on Leia's lap. "What's wrong, mommy?"

She took a deep breath. "Daddy went to find Uncle Luke."

"Uncle Luke's in danger," Anakin said, not questioned.

Leia looked at her youngest son with admiration. Luke said Anakin was strong. The child surprised her at times. This was one of them. She didn't want to tell the children about their uncle, but Anakin knew. He always knew.

The three children talked simultaneously, and Leia couldn't understand a word they were saying.

The doorbell chimed, and Leia walked out of the bedroom, with the three children following her, to answer the door.

"Mon Mothma, this is an unexpected visit, but a grateful one. Please, come in," Leia said.

"I want to introduce you to an old friend of mine," Mon Mothma said.

Leia looked at the stranger, yet she didn't feel like a stranger. "Please, sit down, both of you." She turned to the children. "Go see if Winter is awake." The three of them ran off towards Winter's bedroom. Leia extended a gracious hand to the stranger. "I'm Leia Organa-Solo."

Padme' reached for the hand and introduced herself as Padme', not Arcadia Skywalker.

Leia sensed Padme' was nervous.

"Padme' was a politician during the Old Republic," Mon Mothma said.

"Do you have any interesting stories to tell of the experience, Padme'," Leia asked.

Padme' straighten herself upright. "I remember it like it was yesterday. Palpatine declaring himself Emperor. Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Garm Bel Iblis secretly forming the Rebel Alliance under Palpatine's nose. The Jedi Knights began disappearing, beginning with Anakin Skywalker. Then this Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, appeared from nowhere, becoming the Emperor's servant and executioner."

"Grandfather," Anakin said. The children were hiding behind a chair near Winter's door, eavesdropping.

"The three of you might as well join us," Leia said. Jaina and Jacen sat on the floor, while Anakin sat in Leia's lap. "Excuse Anakin. He's very nosy at times, along with Jaina and Jacen."

Anakin, Padme' mouthed to Mon Mothma.

"That's when I returned to Alderaan," Padme' concluded.

"You're from Alderaan? Mommy's from there," Jaina said.

"I know. I knew her foster father very well," Padme' said. "I knew her real father very well."

"You knew Bail Organa and Anakin Skywalker. Did you know my mother," Leia asked.

"Yes."

"I don't remember much about her, only that she was very beautiful, but sad."

"I think you should tell her, Padme'," Mon Mothma said.

"With the children in the room," Padme' questioned.

"They're going to find out anyway."

"Leia, your mother's not dead."

Leia looked frightened. She trembled. Leia knew what Padme' was going to say next, she felt it through the Force.

"I'm your mother, Leia. I know I have a lot to explain, as to why I staged my death, and as to why I've been in hiding all these years."

Leia wished Han was here to comfort her. Having the children around helped, though. She hugged Anakin tightly. Leia was speechless.

"Leia, she's telling the truth. I, along with Garm and Bail, knew about Arcadia going into hiding. It was for your own protection. The Emperor wanted your mother for some unknown reason at the time. Not until you and Luke told the senate about Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader, did I know why," Mon Mothma said.

"Mommy, she's seen Uncle Luke," Anakin interrupted.

"How did the child know that," Padme' asked.

"Anakin, you shouldn't read people's minds," Leia said. "Where have you seen Luke?"

"On Tatooine, with a woman named Gaeriel." Padme' told about the encounter with Luke at the Lars farm, about her entire trip to Tatooine. Mon Mothma left, leaving mother, daughter, and grandchildren talking for hours.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 -- Nightmare Set Into Motion

Built into the cliff wall, the city laid before the trio, with its nightlights sparkling through the openings in the rock facies. Luke sensed recognition from Gaeriel -- she's seen this city before, but never visited.

"I know where we are, Luke. This city is Alaphia, and this planet we crashed on is Farallon. The only reason why I remember is because Bakura arranged a trade agreement with this planet. I programmed those virtual goggles of mine, which I no longer have, with the information I found out about this planet, including pictures, holograms, and anything other pertinent information."

Luke felt a sudden shift in Gaeriel's emotions, from recognition to fright.

"One of the representatives really gave me the creeps. His name is Zithtral, a Cretaphalon. They are also known as the vanishing race because they have a natural ability to cloak. When I found out about their cloaking capabilities, I guessed that they were probably used in a lot of spy and espionage for underground groups. After the Farallon representatives left, all of my troubles began."

"Well, let's find the spaceport. I have a bad feeling about this place, Gaeri."

Gaeriel, Luke, and Threepio walked up four flights of stairs, rode three turbo lifts, and three elevators to get to the spaceport, which is located on the upper level of Alaphia. Luke asked around to see if there was a flight leaving off the planet, but they were all sold out. They would have to wait until morning. They traveled four levels down to the entertainment and shopping district to find a hotel room. The only vacancy was at a very lavish hotel. Luckily, Gaeriel had the credits to pay for the last room. She didn't care how much it cost, as long as she could take a nice, warm bath.

The room was rather small for the price she paid, yet it had a spectacular view of the valley floor from the bathroom. Gaeriel decided before she takes a bath that she should take a shower to rinse some of the dirt off. Then, she turned on the water in the tub to hot, threw in the complementary bubblebath beads into the water, and slowly sank into the bubbles, relaxing.

Luke sat in one of the repulsor chairs in the sitting area of the hotel room, playing with his mother's ring that she gave to Gaeriel. He could not stop thinking about Padme', or whatever her real name is. My mother's alive, he thought, but where is she now? Luke guessed that she might have went to Coruscant to find Leia. For some reason, he looked at the ring differently, not as his mother's, but the fact that it was a wedding ring, that his father slipped it onto Padme''s finger at their wedding. He wondered when he should ask Gaeriel to marry him -- he just knew it should be sometime soon.

Luke picked up Gaeriel's chrono, which she sat on a coffee table, and looked at the time. Gaeri's been in the bathtub for almost an hour, he realized. He sat up, walked to the bathroom door, and knocked. "Gaeri, are you all right?"

Gaeri stuck her head out of the bubbles, and said, "I'm fine. Why?"

"Well, you've been in there for almost an hour ..."

She didn't realize how long she was in the tub, and jumped out, splashing some water out of the tub. She grabbed one of the towels, and wrapped it around herself, and opened the door. "I felt so relaxed. I'm sorry about the mess on the floor." She walked past Luke, and into the bedroom.

Luke watched her, shrugged his shoulders, and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

Gaeriel got dressed in the only remaining clean clothes of hers, which just happened to be the burgundy homespun dress she bought on Tatooine. Most of her clothes remained on the disabled shuttle of Luke's, out in the desert of this planet. It didn't look like the standard dresses from Tatooine -- this one had a tight upper bodice, the waist cinched, and the skirt was full. She thought that her silver shawl would look nice with this dress, but she left that item back home on Bakura. She walked into the sitting area, where Threepio handed her a mug of herbal tea.

Luke walked out of the bathroom, clothed, and walked into the bedroom to change into some clean clothes, then went into the sitting area. He wore a navy blue tunic and pants, with his usual black boots and Jedi robe.

Gaeriel stared at him. That outfit really brings out the blue in his eyes, she thought. "I was thinking, since we're stuck here for the night, why don't we have some fun, get something to eat, see the sights."

"You mean a date?"

"Sure, if that's how you want to think about it. Why not?"

"Okay." Luke walked to Threepio, and asked him if he wouldn't mind staying here in the hotel room while Gaeriel and him went out. Threepio didn't mind at all.

Gaeriel and Luke left to have a night out on the town.

Nightlife in Alaphia was active, colorful, and non-stop. After dinner, Luke and Gaeriel walked the streets of this lively city built underground and into a cliff wall. For the first time since this trip started, Luke felt like Gaeriel and him were truly a couple, with the exception of the past night's events. He enjoyed holding her soft hand within his. And he liked seeing her smile as she watched the street dancers sashay past them.

One of the dancers stopped in front of them. Luke had never seen a species like this dancer. The dancer pointed to Gaeriel and said, "She's going to die tomorrow, and you will be blamed for her murder."

Luke didn't sense this dancer to have any ability in the Force. Luke asked, "You're not a Jedi. How do you know about the future?"

"I'm a fortune teller, my friend. And I tell the truth."

"Well, I must tell you that a wise old master once told me that the future's always in motion." Luke took Gaeriel's hand and began to walk away, but was stopped by the dancer.

"Jedi, you do not know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I do." The dancer walked away.

"What do you think that was all about? Was anything he said the truth, Luke?" Gaeriel asked.

"He thought it was the truth he was saying. Like I told him, the future's always in motion. Besides, we'll be off this planet tomorrow." Luke felt deceit from that dancer, and from what he said made Luke think about that dream involving Gaeriel. "Let's go back to the hotel. Don't worry about what that dancer said." He kissed Gaeriel and reassured her not to worry. He mostly kissed her to reassure himself that things were going to be okay as well.

The dancer watched this conversation, cloaked behind the corner of the building, and smiled widely. Zithtral praised himself for the success. Senator Captison didn't even recognize him, and he was glad. Now, he just had to plan how to get her away from that Jedi.

Returning to the hotel room, Gaeriel couldn't help but think about the prediction from that dancer, and Luke could sense she was thinking about the so called soothsayer. Luke sat her down on the bed, and massaged her shoulders, hopefully to relieve her tension. After several minutes of massaging, Gaeriel just didn't seem to relax, but those shoulders sure did feel soft to Luke's touch.

"Would you stop thinking about that prediction, Gaeri."

"Luke, someone just told me that I'm going to die tomorrow. And that frightens me." She turned to face him. "I know it's not the truth. I've been getting similar messages for the past several months, although they haven't been told right to my face before."

Luke touched Gaeriel's petal-soft face, and gently kissed her lips. "I love you, and I'll do anything to protect you."

She kissed him back, and ran her fingers through his dark blonde hair.

Gaeriel woke up in the middle of the night, frightened by the nightmare she experienced. The dancer's prediction remained in her memory, and affecting her dreams. She rolled over, watching Luke sleep in peace. She wasn't going to get any sleep tonight, especially after that nightmare. So, she quietly got out of bed, put on the burgundy dress, and stepped out of the bedroom.

Threepio still was plugged into the charger, so she sneaked out of the hotel room to take a brisk walk. When she couldn't sleep, taking a walk helped her relax, allowing her to fall asleep peacefully.

Gaeriel walked out of the lobby onto the busy street, right into a crowd of rowdy people. She quickly walked through the crowd, and ran into someone she knew. What is he doing here, she thought.

"Madam Senator, what a nice surprise to see you."

"Pollard, what are you doing here?"

"That is not for me to answer right now. Right now, you need to come with me. I can help you get off this planet."

"If you can help me get off this planet, are you willing to include my friend in the deal?"

"Don't you mean your boyfriend Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and his protocal droid See-Threepio?"

"How did you know who ... Wait. How did you know I was here?"

"Oh, I have resources, Madam Senator." Pollard pointed a blaster in Gaeriel's back. "Right now, someone wants to see you." Pollard pushed Gaeriel to the nearest turbolift, stuck in a keycard, and told it to travel to the lowest level of the city.

The doors opened to an office. Pollard jabbed the blaster into Gaeriel's back, shoving her forward to a large body-wood door. "Open the door. A surprise awaits."

She did as she was told -- like she had any other choice.

Inside, facing away from the door, Zithtral sat in a violet repulsor chair. He turned it around slowly to face his visitor. "Senator Captison. I'm glad you came."

Gaeriel stared at him. A thousand questions ran through her brain, and several insults as well. "I didn't come willingly. I don't appreciate this, Zithtral. What do you want? And how did you know I was here?"

"You see, my dear, I arranged for you and your Jedi lover to crash onto this planet. I knew the exact landing site, and I knew that you would have to come to Alaphia to find a way off of Farallon. I even ran into the two of you earlier tonight. How did you like his kiss?"

Gaeriel shook with fright. "You're the dancer that walked up to us and told us that I was going to die, and that Luke would be blamed for my murder." All of the events clicked into place -- the death threats, the stalking, Padme''s warning note. "You're the one who's been sending me all of those death threats for the past several months. And Pollard is your man, your spy into the Bakuran government. Why are you spying on me?"

"My dear, I only want you. I don't want to kill you. I want you to be my wife. And if you do not become my wife, I will have to kill you."

"Never!" She spat in his face.

Zithtral stood up, wiped her spit off his face with his forearm, licked it off, and slapped her hard, drawing blood on Gaeriel's face. "Bitch! You will become my wife! You have no choice." He turned a bright red. "Pollard, take her to that abandoned warehouse on the spaceport level." He calmed down back to his orange coloring.

Gaeriel rubbed the wound, trying to massage the pain away. "What are you going to do with me?"

"You'll see. You'll see."

"Gaeriel!" Luke screamed, as he sat up suddenly in bed. He had a vision, the same frightening one as before. He looked over to see if he woke up Gaeriel, but she wasn't there. He opened himself to the Force, to find her presence. He felt terror, anger, fear, and danger from Gaeriel. He realized his nightmare had been set into motion. He quickly dressed, unplugged Threepio, and went on the search for Gaeriel.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 -- Failed Revenge

Cold, frightened, and tired, Gaeriel sat in a corner of a room, supposedly in an abandoned warehouse, holding onto her knees and thinking about what Zithtral had planned. She misjudged her so-called trusted assistant Pollard Tevloor, and she mentally abused herself for making the mistake to hire Tevloor. "That's not the only mistake you've made recently," she said to herself. "Really dumb move to go on a walk when someone predicts your death." She felt a tear run down her face, stinging as it hit the wound Zithtral inflicted. She started to think about Luke.

Gaeriel loved Luke very much, probably even more than when they first met on Bakura. She imagined her fingers combing his fine, dark blonde hair. His warm lips kissing hers. Those delicate blue eyes. And that smile. Luke would find her, she knew. He said that he could sense her, even from a distance. "Too bad I can't communicate to him through the Force." She thought, maybe I am already communicating to him, I just don't realize it.

She heard whispers on the other side of the door. She crawled to the door, and placed her ear against the metal.

"Turn the light on," Zithtral said.

The bright light startled her, but her eyes finally adjusted to the light.

"She's talking to herself, sir," Pollard said.

"How did you know she would be disturbed at my so called prediction, and go for a walk?"

"Sir, I've worked with her for several months. Whenever she has something on her mind, she goes for a walk. So, you didn't need to plan how to get her away from the Jedi -- it would happen on its own."

"Open the door."

Gaeriel backed into her corner, and crunched down.

Zithtral walked in with Pollard. "How's my future wife?"

"I'll never become your wife -- I'll die first."

"Oh, you will, my dear." He sat down next to Gaeriel, but she pushed herself further into the corner. He touched her face. "I'm sorry I hurt you, but you shouldn't have done what you did. It's not very proper."

"Well, it's not proper to kidnap me! I demand to be let free. You have no right to keep me here." She pushed Zithtral's hand away.

"I already have what I want. I have you, and I have that tool your friend Eppie Belden developed. I'm sorry what happened to your friend." He shook his head simpathetically, but Gaeriel knew that it was all an act.

"What do you mean 'what happened to my friend'?"

Pollard stepped in. "You see, in order for me to find out where you dissappeared to, I had to visit Madam Belden. She's a fighter, but she lost in the end."

Gaeriel began to sob. "She's dead? You killed her? How could you?"

Zithtral reached for Gaeriel, wanting to comfort her, but she pushed him away.

"Stay away from me, Zithtral! Don't touch me!"

"My dear, I'm sorry you had to learn about her death this way. Pollard was only doing his job. And he did an excellent job, too."

"Excellent job -- what a joke."

"Pollard, leave us alone."

Pollard left the room, and closed the door.

"Now, my dear, we need to talk about our marriage."

"I'm not marrying you! Besides, I thought you only married virgins."

That angered Zithtral, turning him to a bright red. "DAMN! You slut! You slept with Jedi Skywalker. I'm going to kill him!"

"He'll find me. He can sense me, feel my thoughts, my feelings."

Zithtral hit her so hard, it knocked her unconscious.

Luke remained in tune to the Force, trying to sense Gaeriel's location, but all he could feel was pain and blackness, anger and fear, sadness and grief. Threepio slowed his search, and it's been at least eight hours since Gaeriel dissappeared. For some reason, his Force search led him to the spaceport level.

He deepened his Force probe, and recognized three friendly presences. Luke opened his eyes to see the_ Millennium Falcon_ land in the spaceport, about 300 meters away. He and Threepio walked to the most souped-up cargo vessel in the galazy, and waited for the ramp to lower.

Artoo rolled out towards his master, trilling happily. Threepio walked up to his counterpart, and placed a metallic hand on the astromech's blue dome. Han walked out next, with Chewbacca following right behind him.

"Luke, I thought you'd be here waiting for us." Han looked around. "Where's your friend?"

Wedge walked down the ramp, toward Han and Luke.

Luke sadly said, "She's missing." Luke looked tired, and his eyes were puffy.

"Missing? What happened, Luke?" Wedge asked.

"I woke up from a nightmare -- well, more like a vision, screaming Gaeriel's name. I turned to see if I woke her up, but she wasn't next to me."

Han rubbed his forehead. "You slept with her, Luke?"

"I don't want to hear it, Han."

"Luke, can't you sense her location?" Wedge asked.

Luke tried his Force probe again, closing his eyes, but only felt the same feelings from Gaeriel as before, but her presense felt stronger this time. He sighed, and opened his eyes. "She's nearby, but I don't know exactly where."

"I bet that Pollard character has her," Wedge said.

Luke looked up at his friend. "Who's Pollard?"

"Pollard Tevloor was one of Gaeriel's assistants. He murdered Eppie Belden to find out your exact location on Tatooine. I went to find you, but you'd already left Tatooine. When I did further research on this character, I found out that he's part of an underground group runned by someone named Zithtral. His group infiltrates governments ..."

Luke interrupted Wedge. "Gaeriel said that this Zithtral was part of some trade commission from this planet. They visited Bakura..." He paused. The grief he felt from Gaeriel -- she just learned that her best friend was murdered by her assistant. He rubbed his temple, trying to massage a headache away. "She just found out about Eppie's murder."

Han stared at his brother-in-law, worried about him. "Luke, maybe you should get some rest. And maybe you should break this contact you have with her."

"If I do, we'll never find her." Luke squeezed his eyes shut.

"Luke? You okay?" Han asked, placing a hand on Luke's shoulder.

Remain calm, Luke thought, remain calm. "She's just been knocked unconscious. I felt her get hit! And, you really don't want to know what I'm feeling from her right now. We've got to find her! If my vision is right, someone's going to die soon."

Han didn't even want to know who Luke thought was going to die, but he told the droids to get aboard the Falcon and wait until they returned.

Gaeriel felt pain in every part of her body when she woke up. She didn't even know what happened to her while she was unconscious. She didn't want to know. Her joints hurt, her muscles ached -- she could barely move. She didn't feel the coldness of the floor anymore. She felt the coldness of the air surrounding her. She tried to move her arm, but that movement caused her whole body to move. She couldn't pull it next to her body -- she realized she was tied up, suspended in mid-air. Her feet weren't touching the ground, she couldn't move them freely, either.

She screamed, "Get me down from here!" But, the scream bounced against the walls, echoing back and forth. She was alone, but not for long, because she saw some light enter the pitch black room through a just opened door, then quickly disappear. The sounds of boots came closer.

She didn't flinch when a glowrod shined directly in front of her face -- she was too tired.

"I thought you might like to see what I did to your assistant. He failed me again. He didn't tell me everything, and he's now paid for his mistake." He shined the light to the floor.

Gaeriel tightly squeezed her eyes closed. She wanted to scream at the sight, but she was tired, and in a great deal of pain. Pollard laid on the floor, dead, with his limbs laying one meter away from where they used to be attached to his body. His severed head sat upright, facing her. Not a drop of blood dripped from the lopped off limbs.

"You should be proud of your friend Eppie Belden, my dear. She developed the weapon I used to kill Pollard. All I needed to do was add a couple of parts to make it work for my use."

Gaeriel spoke quietly, "Is that what's going to happen to me?"

"Oh, you'll die, but not that way." He looked past Gaeriel, and observed a red flashing light. "I see you moved. You move one more time, and the bomb will detonate. Hopefully, your Jedi lover will be in the building at the time. I saw him walking around earlier with his protocal droid, searching for you. I hope he loves you enough to die with you. I can't wait to see that happen."

Searching for an hour, Han, Wedge, Chewie, and Luke asked everyone on the spaceport level if they have seen anyone who resembled Gaeriel, Pollard, or Zithtral. They came up empty. Walking down one of the uncrowded streets, Luke paused in front of a building. He stared at it intensely.

Wedge stopped beside Luke. "You okay? You have this worried look to your face."

"She's in there."

Chewie nearly knocked Wedge down, pushing his way to the entrance to the building.

"Chewie! Stop!" Han shouted.

"Chewie, we can't go storming into the building. She'd definetly be killed if we did that. This is a trap -- I can feel it."

"So, do you have a plan?" Wedge asked. "Because if you don't, I do."

Chewie calmed back down, and walked to his companions.

"Well, tell us," Han said.

"We should split up. There has to be a backdoor to this place. Two of us go through the front, and the other two go through the back. We have the advantage -- four against two, or maybe more like five against two, if you count Chewie's strength equal to two humans."

"I agree, but we have to be careful. Something's not right. We make one false move, and ... we'll never see our loved ones again," Luke said.

"Well, Leia did say not to make any stupid moves," Han said.

"Han, you and Wedge should go through the back. This Zithtral wants me -- I'll come through the front with Chewie."

Gaeriel heard someone shout outside. Sounded like "Chewie!" She wanted to shout back, "Luke!" but she didn't have the energy to scream. She was having a hard enough time concentrating on breathing. Zithtral turned off his glowrod, and literally cloaked.

She saw a light come from the door, and two shadows walk through.

Luke could feel Gaeriel's presense and the fear for her life when he walked into the large, dark room. Echoes emanated from the darkness. He knew she was not alone, but could not sense the other being. As he began to walk towards the center of the room, he felt death, he smelled the fear of the murdered victim. Cautiously, he pulled a lightrod from his belt and turned it on. The victim laid in pieces -- head and limbs severed from the body, laying exactly one meter from where they should be attached to the body. Not a drop of blood was on the concrete floor. Luke looked closer at the body and noticed something very strange -- the limbs and head had been cauterized, black where the cuts were made. Luke knew of only one weapon that could produce that result -- a lightsaber, he thought, as he grabbed his lightsaber with a tighter grip.

Gaeriel shouted, "Don't come any closer, Luke!"

"I'd listen to the Senator if I were you, Jedi," Zithtral said as he uncloaked.

Luke focused his light towards Gaeriel, and froze in place.

"If she moves, or if you touch her, this place explodes." Zithtral pointed to the top of Gaeriel's restraints. "If the chain moves five centimeters in any direction, the bomb detonates."

Luke heard Han and Wedge come through the back. "Wedge! Han! Don't move!"

"Yeah, I can see why," Wedge said. He saw the metal box with the flashing red light near him.

"What do you want, Zithtral?" Luke asked.

"You know my name. That doesn't surprise me. I did want your lover as my wife, but I have to kill her now -- she's not pure, thanks to you. But, what I really want is revenge on the Jedi order, and wouldn't you know it, but both situations crossed paths. Lucky me!"

Luke ignited his lightsaber a split second before Zithtral ignited a lazer towards him. He anticipated Zithtral's action, and parried the lazer into the wall.

Wedge pulled out his blaster, set it to stun just in case he missed, and fired it at Zithtral. Direct hit.

Zithtral fell dangerously close to Gaeriel, but she didn't move. Neither did Zithtral.

Chewie growled a question.

Han translated, "Wedge, what made you think of that!"

"I figured Zithtral was going to try something, and if Luke distracted him for even a second ... well, I decided to go for it."

"Stupid move, if you ask me," Han said.

"Yeah, but at least it worked!"

Luke ignored the arguing Corellians, and walked closer to Gaeriel. "Stay still, Gaeri."

She gently nodded.

"Do either one of you know how to disarm the bomb?" Luke said.

Han motioned Chewie to take a look at the metal box. He growled a complaint.

"Shit. Really, Chewie?" Han said.

Chewie confirmed his observation by pointing at the timer.

"Uh, Luke, do you think you can cut her down really quickly? We only have a minute to get out of here," Han said.

Wedge was already on his way out when he heard Han say that news.

Chewie grabbed Zithtral by his arms, and dragged him out of the building.

Luke ignited his lightsaber, flinging it at the bottom chains, then mentally guiding it to circle back through the top restraints. He mentally switched the saber off, letting it land in his right hand, while Gaeriel collapsed in his left arm. Luke picked Gaeriel up into his arms, and ran out the door with Han.

Just as Luke and Han ran out the door, the building exploded. Han dove to the ground near Chewie. Luke dropped down, sheltering Gaeriel from the heat and the flames.

Sirens went off. Zithtral woke up, finding a Wookiee's foot pressing down on top of him. Emergency vehicles stopped near the group. A peace officer approached.

"What happened here," the peace officer asked.

Wedge explained the whole situation to the officer. He even handed over the recording of Eppie Belden's murder, and all of his investigative work in the actions of Zithtral.

The officer glanced at a few of the contents, then told one of his officers to arrest Zithtral.

Chewie gladly raised his large foot off of Zithtral's back, and let the officer take the criminal into custody.

The peace officer walked over to Luke and Gaeriel. "Is she okay?"

Luke touched Gaeriel's wound on her face. Staring at her, Luke replied, "She will be. She's been through a lot. She needs to rest."

Gaeriel whispered, "I love you, Luke."

"I know, Gaeri. I love you, too."

Gaeriel passed out.

The government officials on Farallon let the _Millennium Falcon_ leave the planet without question. Luke sat next to the medical bunk in the crew's quarters, watching Gaeriel sleep for almost a full day. He wanted to be next to her when she finally awakened -- he cared for her deeply, and he loved her very much.

Wedge walked into the quarters, and placed a friendly hand on Luke's shoulder. "Has she awakened yet?"

Luke didn't turn around, but replied, "No, she needs the rest."

"I'm glad you told me to visit her on my trip to Bakura."

"She's glad to have met you, too."

Wedge looked at Gaeriel, wondering just how strong a connection Luke has with her. "Luke, when you were ... feeling her thoughts while we were searching for her, you mentioned you felt her get knocked unconscious, then you said you felt something else, but you didn't want to tell us what it was."

"I felt Zithtral rape her while she was unconscious. I hope she never remembers what happened. I know I'll never forget it."

"Oh, Luke, I'm sorry I asked."

"That's okay, my friend." Luke reached into his pocket and pulled out Padme''s ring. "Are we almost to Coruscant?"

"Yes. A couple of more hours. Nice ring."

"Isn't it? I just wish I had a ring to give to Gaeriel."

"You didn't get the ring to give to Gaeriel?"

"No. The ring belongs to someone else, and someday, Gaeriel and I will give it back to her." Luke turned around to face Wedge. "How did you ask Qwi to marry you?"

"You haven't asked her?"

"No, I'm waiting for her to wake up."

Gaeriel groaned, and opened her eyes. She looked right at Luke.

Wedge quietly left the room.

"Luke, where am I?"

"We're on the _Falcon_, Gaeri. You've been asleep for almost a day."

"A day? I probably needed it."

"Yes, you did."

"Luke, you look horrible. You've been waiting for me to wake up, haven't you?"

"Yes, but I wanted to ask you something." Luke took a deep breath. "Gaeriel Captison, I love you with all of my heart. Will you marry me?"

Gaeriel tried to sit up, but all her joints still ached. Instead, she took Luke's right hand.

"It's about damn time you asked her, Luke!" Han said.

"HAN!" Luke and Gaeriel shouted.

"All right. I'll leave you two alone," Han said as he left.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask me."

"Well?"

"Yes, I will marry you, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker."

He bent down and kissed her.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 -- Union Hand in Hand

Peace -- finally, there was peace in Gaeriel's life. With all of the horrible things that have happened to her in the past several months, a lot of good things happened as well. Luke and her reunited, falling in love all over again, but this time, the love was stronger. She let Luke snuggle up next to her in the medical bunk, and fall asleep. Although she still ached, it felt comforting to have Luke close to her. She placed her head on his shoulder, thinking about their future.

The door to the crew quarters slid open.

"Sshhh," Gaeriel whispered. "Luke's asleep, Han."

"You should wake him up. We've landed on Coruscant."

"I'll tell him."

Han walked out of the room.

She kissed Luke on his cheek. "It's time to wake up, my love."

"I know. I heard Han." Luke kissed Gaeriel back. "Are you ready to face a crowd?"

"No, but I must."

Luke got out of the bed. He held a hand out for Gaeriel, helping her out of bed, placing her arm around his neck. He placed his arm around her waist, and gently lifted her to a standing position. Luke felt she was still physically weak, yet mentally strong. "We'll take it slow -- one step at a time." Luke and Gaeriel walked slowly to the ramp of the _Falcon_, then proceeded down the ramp.

Waiting outside the _Falcon's_ ramp, Leia and Han were hugging each other, the kids were holding Han's legs, Chewie was trying to pull the kids off of Han, Wedge and Qwi were kissing like newlyweds should. Luke and Gaeriel could have sneaked past the crowd, but Luke saw someone he really wanted to see. Luke and Gaeri walked toward Padme'. Leia stopped hugging Han, and watched her brother approach their mother.

Luke reached into his pocket, and pulled out the opal and diamond ring. He handed it to Padme'. "I believe this is yours."

Padme' looked at Gaeriel.

"He knows, Padme'."

Padme' looked at her son, smiled and said, "I'm glad."

Luke carefully removed Gaeriel's arm, and hugged his mother for the first time in his life. Gaeriel felt a tear run down her face, happy for Luke.

Han turned to Leia and whispered, "Who's the beautiful older woman?"

Leia smiled and said, "She's our mother, Han."

Han glanced at Padme', then back to his wife. "You have her eyes."

Too-Onebee came out with a medical floatation bed following him. He stopped in front of Gaeriel. "Madam Senator, please lay down on the bed." Han sent a message earlier about Gaeriel needing medical attention.

She gratefully lied down. "Luke, come with me. I don't want to be alone."

Luke grasped Gaeriel's hand. "You won't."

Too-Onebee walked back the way he came, with Gaeriel and Luke following closely behind.

Wedge yelled, "So, did you ask her to marry you?"

Luke kept on walking, but said strongly, "Yes."

"AND?"

Luke looked right into Gaeriel's mismatched eyes and said, "She said yes."

Too-Onebee, Gaeriel and Luke left to sounds of clapping and cheers behind them.

Luke dropped his new Lambda class shuttle, the _Knight's Crusade_, out of hyperspace. The Bakura system lay ahead. Gaeriel was returning home. She needed to make her peace with her home planet -- after disappearing without a word, she probably worried the entire planet. She wanted to pay her respects to the woman she thought of as more like a mother than a friend, Eppie Belden. It's been three weeks since Gaeriel left Bakura to join Luke on Tatooine. Three weeks since Eppie Belden's murder. Luke knew Gaeriel felt she could have prevented Eppie's murder, but he told her "You can't go back in time to change the past. I wish I could have several times to fix things. But, you have the future to look forward to -- we have the future to look forward to, together."

Luke talked into the comlink. "Gaeri, we're here."

Luke could hear Gaeriel running into the cockpit, her shoes pounding against the metal corridor floor. She plopped into the co-pilot seat. "I've only seen Bakura from space a few times. It's good to be home."

"You should take it a little easy. Too-Onebee said you weren't fully

recovered." That wasn't the only thing Too-Onebee told Luke.

"I feel fine, Luke. I'm just glad to be home."

Luke turned on the transponder. "Salis D'aar spaceport, this is the New Republic ship, the _Knight's Crusade_, requesting clearance to land."

"Ask if there's a senate meeting today."

"I also have a passenger who would like to know if there is a senate meeting today."

A young Lieutenant replied, "I can't allow you to land. We have no record of a New Republic ship called the _Knight's Crusade_ in our computer banks..."

Gaeriel grabbed the transponder. "This is Senator Captison on board the _Knight's Crusade_. The ship has just recently been registered to Luke Skywalker. Please allow us to land."

"Senator Gaeriel Captison?"

"Yes."

"Permission granted -- and welcome home, Senator."

Gaeriel turned off the transponder. "Well, there goes the surprise of my

return."

"You still have one surprise, though."

"The wedding -- and I know the perfect place to have it, Luke." Gaeriel clenched her stomach. "I guess I'm nervous -- I feel nauseous."

Gaeriel stood outside the Senate chambers doors in the Bakur Complex, with Luke at her side. She thought of what she was going to tell the Senate, and her Uncle Yeorg, the Prime Minister. Explaining why she disappeared would be easy, but telling them that she wished to resign her position would be hard. She loved being a Senator, but she wanted to be with Luke. This time, she told herself to follow your heart, not what others want you to follow. She inhaled deeply, and opened the doors to the chamber.

Her timing was perfect. The Senate just began discussions into the infiltration of the Bakuran government by Gaeriel's former assistant Pollard Tevloor. She walked in, with Luke following her, and stood until someone noticed the two of them. Finally, her uncle, Yeorg Captison turned in Gaeriel and Luke's direction, and lost his thought.

"Pollard Tevloor was only an agent of the actual individual who tried to infiltrate the Bakuran government," Gaeriel said. "He was working for Zithtral, one of the members of the Farallon trade commission. Zithtral's only goal on that commission was to infiltrate our government by torturing individuals, like myself."

Gaeriel felt Luke squeeze her hand.

"Senator, do you have any proof to these accusations?" One of the senior, and most doubtful senators asked.

Gaeriel handed her uncle several data cards, which included Wedge Antilles research into Zithtral's action, Eppie Belden's murder, and her own story on her abduction by Zithtral. Yeorg chose to read one of the data cards, while Gaeriel continued. "I also have several witnesses to back up these facts." She told the whole story of her abduction to the Senate, leaving out some of the details, the reason behind Eppie Belden's murder, and the reason behind the death threats to her life.

Yeorg sat down in his chair and put his head in his hands. "Senator Captison, after only reading one of these cards, and hearing your story, I have no choice but to break off the trade agreement with the Farallon government."

"Prime Minister, the Farallon government didn't even know what Zithtral's actual intentions were. The Bakuran government should not break off a trade agreement because of one individual. Zithtral was using his government just as much as he was using ours. Zithtral is in custody on Farallon, pending review of his actions to his own government, the recent kidnapping of myself, the murders of Eppie Belden and Pollard Tevloor, and the attempted murders of myself, Generals Wedge Antilles and Han Solo, Han Solo's co-pilot Chewbacca, and Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker." All the Senators looked at Luke.

"I will have to talk to the Farallon government about this situation in greater detail. Senator, since you are back from leave, I ask you to return to duty," Yeorg said.

"Prime Minister . . . Uncle Yeorg . . . I would like to ask you to accept my resignation from Senatorial duty . . . unless the Ambassador to the New Republic position is still available." She turned to see Luke staring at her, surprised. It must have slipped her mind about telling Luke that a position as an Ambassador to the New Republic was available.

"Over a month ago, you turned down the position for personal reasons. Why do you want the position now?"

"Personal reasons."

"I'm afraid you need to tell us the sudden change in heart."

She walked up to her uncle, looked him face to face, and said, "Luke's asked me to marry him, and I've accepted."

One week later, Gaeriel stood in front of a full length mirror wearing her wedding dress. Her wedding day finally arrived. Earlier today, she visited the burial sites of her parents and the Beldens, placing a forget-me-not on each of their headstones. Now, she reflected on the events that led to this day -- the most important day in her life. She smiled, remembering all of those talks she shared with Luke, the kisses, the hugs. And now, she would be part of his life now and forever.

"You ready, Gaeri?" Aunt Tiree asked.

Gaeriel took a deep breath. "Almost. Come on in. I just don't feel very good -- nerves, I guess."

"Everyone is nervous on their wedding day, dear. Luke's probably just as nervous as you."

Gaeriel placed some ribbons in her hair. "He's probably calm and at peace with himself. I, on the other hand, have been sick all morning."

"It's just nerves, Gaeri. Your mother's dress looks beautiful on you. Your mother and father would be proud."

"I only wish they were here. Did you hear from my sister?"

"I don't think she's going to show up. I'm sorry, but you know her views."

Gaeriel slipped into her shoes. "I know them all too well." She took one glance in the mirror. "Well, I'm ready -- I hope."

The stars sparkled through the trees in Statuary Park. Ivy intertwined through the canopies strung to the trees, covering a natural walkway. Luke Skywalker stood at the far end of the walkway, trying his best to remain calm and at peace. He glanced around and recognized many of the faces invited to observe the ceremony. Most of his students from the Jedi Academy, New Republic officials, Generals, Senators, and even some of the pilots from Rogue Squadron. Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin sat in the front row with immaculately groomed Chewbacca and their grandmother Padme' Skywalker. Luke smiled at his mother, glad that she decided to attend. The Force binds love together, he thought. It brought Gaeriel and him back together. It reunited mother, son, and daughter.

Han, Luke's best man, tapped him on the shoulder. "I believe it's time, kid."

Luke focused his eyes at the opposite end of the walkway where Gaeriel was standing alone, wearing an ivory satin dress with bordeaux and silver ribbons braided around the bottom edge, matching ribbons in her hair, and exposed shoulders. Out of the corner of his eye, Luke saw Gaeriel's uncle walk off the dais, and toward her.

Gaeriel wiped a tear from her eye before she hugged her uncle. Luke smiled, knowing those were tears of joy in Gaeriel's eyes. Gaeriel placed her arm in her uncle's. The two of them approached the dais, but were stopped by someone Luke has never met.

"Ysanna . . . I don't believe it."

"Do you think I would miss the most important day in my little sister's life?" Ysanna hugged her sister. "You look beautiful in mother's dress. Now, do her proud."

Gaeriel walked up the dais, and placed her hands within Luke's. They looked into each other's eyes, union hand in hand, as the officiator first led Luke into his vows, then Gaeriel into hers. Leia handed Luke a ring, with tiny diamonds accentuating the gold band. Luke slipped it onto Gaeriel's small left ring finger. While still holding her hand, Luke kissed her petal soft lips, letting the moment flood his perception, the deep sweet warmth of her life presence intermingling with his.

The two of them, hand in hand, walked off the dais and down the natural path, past all the guests, and into the park. Luke and Gaeriel stopped near a pokkta tree and kissed once again. Luke then whispered something into Gaeriel's ear.

"I am?"

"Yes."

"That explains why I've been so sick for the past couple of weeks."

They laughed.

"We have the whole mansion to ourselves tonight, Luke. No servants -- no droids -- and no aunt and uncle. Are you hungry, because I am."

"What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking of ordering up the same meal we first shared together -- only this time without the trichoid larvae."

They laughed, and walked away together, as husband and wife.


	14. Epilogue

Epilogue -- The Future of the Skywalkers

This morning wasn't any different on Coruscant as any other morning, at least that's what Gaeriel thought as she was taking a shower. Gaeriel and Luke came to Imperial City six weeks ago from the Jedi Academy to await the arrival of their twins. The twins due date past two weeks ago, but that didn't surprise Gaeriel at all. Her older sister was late, yet Gaeriel was right on time. To keep her mind off of the lateness of the twins, Gaeriel decided to attend some New Republic meetings on this Coruscant visit just like she did six months ago during the last visit. Stick to routine, she told herself, keep yourself busy. Luke went to visit Lando Calrissian earlier this morning for breakfast. Gaeriel told him that if she went into labor, she would contact him. She also added that Luke would probably know before she did. As she was washing her hair, Gaeriel went into labor.

Gaeriel leaned into one of the corners of the shower until the contraction subsided, rinsed out her hair, then carefully stepped out, grabbed her bathrobe off of the counter, and put it on. She looked around for the comlink to contact Luke, but couldn't find it. She sat down in the chair next to the tri-D screen, first calling the Medical center to inform them she was in labor, and then to Leia. Gaeriel told Leia that she was in labor, and she needed to contact Luke. "I can't find the comlink, and I don't know Lando's tri-D number."

"Okay, first off, don't panic. Luke probably knows that you've gone into labor, Gaeri. He might be on his way back right now, but I'll contact Lando just to make sure."

Just as Leia was speaking, Luke walked through the door.

"Luke, I've . . ."

"I know. Let's get you down to Medical." He saw Leia on the screen. "You might want to talk to Han. Seems he made a bet with Lando." He shut off the tri-D, and helped Gaeriel to her feet. "Did you want to put on some clothes?"

"Yeah, could you get the blue casual dress -- the really loose one, for me."

Luke went into the bedroom, came back with the dress, and assisted dressing Gaeriel. "You went into labor in the shower." He noticed Gaeriel's wet hair.

"Yeah. I was getting ready for this afternoon's Ambassador's meeting. I guess I have a great excuse for not attending the meeting."

The two of them walked out of the stateroom, and took the nearest droptube to the Medical Center.

Fifteen hours later, Gaeriel and Luke became the proud parents of a boy, Ben, and seven minutes later, a girl, Nomi. They came up with the names months earlier while back on Yavin IV. Luke wanted to name his son after his first teacher, master, and friend, Ben Kenobi. Gaeriel agreed, saying that their son would be proud to be named after a hero such as Ben Kenobi. Gaeriel decided that if their son was being named after a great Jedi, that their daughter should, also. With the help of the Jedi Historian Tionne, Gaeriel came up with the name of Nomi, after the Jedi Knight Nomi Sunrider, who accepted the Jedi training meant for her murdered husband, Andur, becoming a very strong Jedi, and fought in many battles, including the Sith Wars.

Luke walked out of the birthing room, and found his family and friends waiting for the news in the waiting area.

Leia gave her brother a hug. Luke glanced over at Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin sleeping on the couch with Chewbacca. "How long have they been asleep?" He rubbed his eyes, trying to get rid of the sleep.

"Almost six hours. How are Gaeriel and the twins?"

"Mother and the twins are fine. Gaeriel's tired, and frankly, so am I."

"So, now that they are born, what did you name your son and daughter?"

"Ben and Nomi." Gaeriel and Luke decided to keep the names secret until the twins were born.

Han and Lando said in unison, "Who was born first?"

Leia gave them a dirty look, knowing that the two of them wanted the information for their bet.

Luke simply said, "Ben was first, and Nomi was born seven minutes later."

"Lando pay up," Han said.

"Fine. Luke, where do you want to go to dinner tomorrow night?" Lando looked at his chrono. "Or should I say later today, around dinnertime."

Luke looked at Leia, then at Han and Lando. "What?"

"The loser of the bet gets to take the new father out to dinner, with the winner, of course," Han said.

"I don't know. Ask me when I get some sleep," Luke said as he yawned. "You should see Ben and Nomi, Leia."

"Han and I will later this afternoon, with the kids. Right now, I think you want to go back inside and see your wife and children. We'll see you later, Daddy." Leia gave Luke a kiss, and Luke walked back into the birthing room, smiling.

Gaeriel was propped up, sitting at an angle, holding Nomi in her arms. "That didn't take long?"

Luke sat down next to Gaeriel. The medic came over with the other twin, wrapped up in blankets, and placed Ben into Luke's awaiting arms. He looked at his son and smiled. "Hello, little one." Luke leaned to give Gaeriel a kiss. "It seems this bet Han and Lando made was to see who gets to take me out to dinner to celebrate."

"That sounds like a good bet." Gaeriel yawned. "Thanks for all your help during the delivery, Luke."

"I was trying my best to ease the pain for you. Did it work?"

"Sort of. I've never felt pain like that before." She looked down at Nomi, and then over to Ben in Luke's arms. "But it was worth it. We have two healthy, beautiful children."

The medic came over. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but we would like to move you to a resting room now. I'll take the babies. You can both rest there." The medic first took Ben from Luke, then Nomi from Gaeriel, placing them into cribs. Two emdees pushed the childrens cribs out the door while another emdee came through the door with a medical floatation bed for Gaeriel. "They'll be in the same room with you, Ambassador Skywalker," the medic said.

Later that day, sometime before noon, Gaeriel carefully got out of bed, made sure her backside wasn't exposed, and walked the short distance to the twins. Ben and Nomi were sleeping, and Gaeriel just stood there watching. "I'm your mother, and I love you both very much." She leaned over to kiss Ben on his forehead, and then kissed Nomi's forehead. She walked back into bed just as a visitor walked into the room.

"Hello, Gaeriel."

"Padme', I'm glad you stopped by. Please, sit down." She pointed to one of the empty chairs in the room.

Padme' graceously sat down. "Where's Luke?"

"He should be back any minute. He's getting some food and bringing it back." She noticed Padme' staring at the cribs. "Go ahead. I'm sure they want to see their grandmother just as much as you want to see them."

As Padme' got out of the chair, Luke walked back into the room. "Hello, mother." He set the food and beverages on the ngithstand next to Gaeriel's bed, then went over to his children.

"You named your son after Ben?" Padme' said as she stroked Ben's forehead. "Ben would be proud, if he was still with us."

Luke looked at an empty corner. "He is."

Nomi began to cry. Luke picked her up. "Would you like to hold your granddaughter?" Ben began to cry as well. "Or your grandson?"

Padme' took Ben out of the crib. Ben quieted immediately, followed by Nomi.

"When one cries, the other one cries as well," Gaeriel said, as she sipped her drink. "At least that's what I've been noticing. It happened earlier this morning, too. Ben was hungry and began to cry, then Nomi joined in with her brother. I don't know what they want now. I just changed them thirty minutes ago."

"I don't think Ben need changing," Padme' said, feeling Ben's tiny little bottom.

Luke brought Nomi over to Gaeriel. She reached for her daughter. "Are you hungry again?"

Padme' handed Ben to Luke. "Well, I'll leave you to their lunch. I've got an appointment in a couple of minutes with Mon Mothma anyways."

"Are you going to come back?" Luke asked.

"Of course. I'll be back later tonight, before visiting hours are over."

Luke kissed his mother goodbye.

An hour later, Leia and Han came to visit. Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin were waiting outside with Chewbacca. Leia went immediately to Ben and Nomi, while Han sat in one of the vacant chairs. "The two of you must be very happy," Leia said, "they are very strong in the Force, just like Anakin."

"I know, Leia," Luke said, who was sitting on the bed next to Gaeriel. "Han, do you think we could go out later tonight for dinner? Padme' is suppose to stop by again tonight, and I want to be here when she does."

"Yeah, I don't think Lando would mind. After all, he's paying."

"Where are the new cousins?" Luke asked.

"Outside with Chewie. We didn't know if you wanted them in here. But they do want to meet their cousins real badly," Leia said.

"They can come in," Gaeriel said.

Han opened the door, told the kids to be quiet, and led them into the room to see their cousins Ben and Nomi.

"They're so tiny," Jacen said.

"I think they're cute," Jaina said.

"They're strong," Anakin said.

"Luke, you're not going to separate the twins from you and Gaeriel?" Leia asked.

"What's she talking about, Luke?" Gaeriel said, slightly worried.

"After all the trouble you experienced, Leia, I'm not isolating the twins from us. I've learned from isolating your kids that it causes more problems than benefits," Luke said.

Gaeriel let out a sigh of relief.

"Good," Leia said. "Kids, I think it's time to leave."

"Do we have to?" All three children said.

"Yes. We'll see you two tomorrow, when you get out of the medical center," Leia said. "Have a good time at dinner with Lando and Han, Luke."

"I will." Luke went to give Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin hugs, then gave Leia a hug.

Han slapped Luke on the back. "Good job, Luke."

Luke smiled. Han and Leia left, leaving Gaeriel and Luke alone with the quiet twins. Luke sat back down next to Gaeriel. "I'm sorry Leia brought up that subject." He stroked Gaeriel's hair.

"Well, I'm glad she did. And I'm glad you've learned from that experience." Gaeriel wiggled herself under the covers.

"Me, too." He snuggled up next to her.

Gaeriel fell asleep, with Luke not that far behind.

Four weeks later, the Skywalker family returned to the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV. It was nighttime on the moon. Ben and Nomi were sleeping peacefully in their own room, with a Noghri standing guard outside the room. Gaeriel was having a terrible nightmare, hearing screams and yells surrounding her. She suddenly woke up, sitting up just a little quickly, and breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to see Luke sleeping soundly. She stepped out of bed, put on her robe, headed out the room, up the turbolift, and onto the roof of the Great Temple.

Not too long after, Luke woke up, noticing Gaeriel wasn't in bed. He reached out to the Force for her presence, and found her. He sensed she was frightened. He stepped out of bed, put on his own robe, and went to the kitchen. He made some hot chocolate, poured it into two mugs, told the Noghri that he was heading up to the roof, and proceeded to do so.

When he stepped out of the turbolift, Luke noticed Gaeriel's reddish-brown hair gently flowing in the wind. She was sitting on the edge, facing away from him, staring at the giant planet of Yavin.

Luke walked up to her, sat down, and handed her one of the mugs.

"Thanks, Luke."

"Do you want to talk about your nightmare?"

She took a sip from the mug. "I was raped while I was unconscious by . . ."

Luke set his mug down. "I was hoping you weren't going to remember."

"How do you know what happened to me?"

"I was reaching out through the Force for you, and I felt everything that happened to you. I'm sorry."

"You felt that creep rape me?"

"Yes, and it's something I'll never forget. I know what you're going to ask next, and yes, Ben and Nomi are ours. We created them, back at that spring. They existed before you were obducted."

Gaeriel felt embarrassed. "I don't know what got into me that night. I stepped into the water, and I felt very sensual and aggressive."

"I felt the same way, but I was trying my best to fight the feelings. Maybe there was something in the water, I don't know. It doesn't matter anyways. What happened that night was going to happen -- whether it happened there, or somewhere else, I'm just glad it did." He leaned over to Gaeriel, touched her face, and kissed her.

"Me, too." She took a sip of her hot chocolate. "This is good, Luke. I'm going to need to go to Bakura in a couple of months. Uncle Yeorg and Aunt Tiree want to see the twins. Plus, I have to update the Senate on the actions of the New Republic."

"I think Ben and Nomi would like to see their Aunt and Uncle, too."

"Luke, I know we never talked about this before, but how many kids do you want?"

"What made you think of that question?"

"I've been thinking about it lately -- having more children."

"I don't know -- three or four, I guess." He took a sip from his mug.

She smiled. "I see we agree."

Luke held Gaeriel in his arms, and the two of them sat watching the gases of Yavin swirl and flow within its atmosphere.


End file.
